Prime accused held, sent to 14-day CID custody

Kolkata: The prime accused of the Baguiati abduction-cum-double murder case, Satyendra Chowdhury, was picked up by the Bidhannagar City Police on Friday from the vicinity of Howrah Railway Station complex while he was trying to flee to some other state.

He was brought to the Bidhannagar City Police headquarters and later handed over to the CID. Chowdhury was produced before the Barasat Court and has been remanded to CID custody for 14 days.

Four alleged accomplices of Chowdhury were earlier nabbed in connection with the incident.

Though the investigation of the case has been handed over to the CID, Bidhannagar City Police had been assisting the probe agency to track Chowdhury.

Cops of the Detective Department were constantly trying to track Chowdhury's mobile phone's location. However, they had failed as he was frequently changing SIM cards.

Police then started monitoring the mobile numbers of Chowdhury's family members. Several police teams were deployed at railway stations and bus terminuses across the city. Cops were finally able to track his location near Howrah Station when he called one of his friends on Thursday night and again on Friday morning. The team deployed at Howrah Railway Station was alerted. Specific inputs, related to the location of the mobile number, were also passed on by the monitoring cell.

Finally, Chowdhury was apprehended in front of a travel agency office.

During interrogation, Chowdhury reportedly told the cops that he was trying to flee to some other state but was unable to buy a ticket due to lack of money. He had called his friend and had asked him to send money online. Chowdhury confessed that he had killed Atanu Dey as the deceased was demanding Rs 50,000, which Dey had given him to buy a motorcycle, sources said. Abhishek Naskar was murdered as he was a witness to the crime. Sources informed that Chowdhury had hatched a plan to murder Atanu well in advance. He is suspected to have spent a lot of money to arrange a stay for the other accused persons. However, cops are yet to ascertain the motive as several ambiguities have been found in Chowdhury's statement. On Friday, Atanu and Abhishek's family members demanded a death sentence for the prime accused. On Thursday, TMC MP Saugata Roy, state Fire minister Sujit Bose and city Mayor Firhad Hakim had visited the residences of the deceased and promised action against the accused. Roy had also castigated the police for "faltering in the investigation process".

Bodies of two boys were found at a morgue in Basirhat on September 6, almost a fortnight after they went missing. The police later said that the duo was strangled to death.