Bhowanipore bizman murder: Key accused held, Rs 6.5L recovered

KOLKATA: The accused youth in Bhowanipore gold merchant Shantilal Baid (66) murder case has been arrested from Ahmedabad by the Kolkata Police team with assistance of the Anti Terrorist Squad (ATS) of Gujrat Police.

On Wednesday, Commissioner of Police (CP), Kolkata, Vineet Kumar Goyal said that despite the investigating officials knowing who is the culprit the arrest was delayed as the accused Vimal Sharma was very shrewd and left no footprints. Police have also recovered around Rs 6.50 lakh from him which is part of the ransom money.

Baid was murdered at a room of a guest house located on Sambhunath Pandit street on February 14 night. Initially police were informed by Baid's family members claiming that they have received a ransom call who instructed them to pay Rs 25 lakh for the release of the businessman. But Vimal had killed Baid before making the ransom call.While probing, cops managed to get a few footage of multiple surveillance cameras through which Vimal was identified. But cops were not sure about his name as he had written some other name in the guest house register. Police said that during the absconding period, Vimal had been to Odisha, Delhi, Maharashtra and Gujrat.

As he was not staying long in one place and using fake names, cops were finding it difficult to nab him. Finally a few days ago Vimal was spotted in the outskirts of Ahmedabad. Immediately Gujrat Police was informed and requested to detain him.

Accordingly Vimal was detained from a hotel by the ATS of Gujrat Police on Tuesday night and brought to Ahmedabad. Meanwhile a team from the Kolkata Police reached Ahmedabad and arrested him. He was produced at a local court in Ahmedabad and has been granted transit remand to bring Vimal to Kolkata.