The Central Bureau of Investigation has taken over the probe into the murder of an aide to West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari, PTI quoted officials as saying on Tuesday.
The aide, Chandranath Rath, had been shot dead near Kolkata on May 6.
The CBI took over the case after a request from the state government, the officials said.
The central agency has set up a seven-member Special Investigation Team under a deputy inspector general of police (special crime) from Delhi, the news agency quoted the officials as saying.
The officials noted that the agency has re-registered the FIR filed earlier by the police. “All possible angles, including interstate criminal links and conspiracy, are being examined,” PTI quoted the officials as saying.
Rath was killed amid widespread political violence in West Bengal after the Bharatiya Janata Party defeated the Trinamool Congress in the Assembly elections.
He was travelling in a car to his home in Barasat when assailants on motorbikes intercepted the vehicle in the Madhyamgram area at about 10.20 pm. One of the suspects reportedly approached the car and fired three bullets at close range, it had been reported at the time.
Rath, who was seated next to the driver, sustained several bullet injuries and was declared dead after being taken to hospital. His driver, Buddhadeb, was seriously injured.
The motive for the murder was unclear.
Rath had worked with Adhikari for several years and handled political coordination and organisational work. He had reportedly been associated with the BJP leader since 2018 and later became his executive assistant after Adhikari became Leader of the Opposition in West Bengal.
Adhikari, who became the chief minister on Saturday, was not with Rath at the time of the attack. The BJP leader alleged that it was a “pre-planned murder”.
On Monday, three persons were arrested in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh in connection with the killing of Rath.
The men were identified as Vishal Srivastava, a resident of Bihar’s Buxar district, Mayank Mishra and Vicky Maurya, the Hindustan Times reported. Mishra and Maurya are from Uttar Pradesh, officials said. On Monday, a Kolkata court sent them to 13 days in police custody.
The police suspect that at least eight persons were involved in the killing of Rath.
The Trinamool Congress had condemned Rath’s killing and expressed grief over the deaths of party workers in separate incidents of violence across the state. The party alleged that “BJP-backed miscreants” had been involved in post-poll unrest and called for a court-monitored CBI probe into the killing of Rath.
Edited by Nachiket Deuskar
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