Kolkata, May 21 (IANS) The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Thursday arrested the sixth accused in connection with the murder of West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari’s personal assistant, Chandranath Rath, from Ballia district in Uttar Pradesh, officials of the central agency confirmed.

Officials said the accused has been identified as 35-year-old Navin Kumar Singh, originally hailing from the Zamani area under the Fefna police station limits in Uttar Pradesh’s Ballia district.

He was arrested following a joint operation conducted by the CBI and the Uttar Pradesh Police.

According to sources aware of the development, the weapon recovered from Navin Kumar Singh was suspected to be the same firearm used in the murder of Chandranath Rath. The weapon has been sent for forensic examination to ascertain whether it matches the firearm used in the crime.

Earlier on Wednesday, the CBI had arrested the fifth accused in the case, identified as 40-year-old Vinay Rai alias Pumpum Rai, from Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh.

Prior to that, on May 18, the central investigating agency had arrested the alleged main shooter, identified as Rajkumar Singh, from Muzaffarnagar in Uttar Pradesh. That arrest was also made with the assistance of the Uttar Pradesh Police.

Before the CBI took over the investigation, the Special Investigation Team (SIT) of the West Bengal Police had arrested three other accused in the case, namely Mayank Raj Mishra, Vicky Maurya and Raj Singh, in connection with Chandranath Rath’s murder.

Forty-one-year-old Rath, who had earlier served in the Indian Air Force, was shot dead in Madhyamgram in North 24 Parganas district late on May 6.

The incident took place within 48 hours of the announcement of the high-stakes West Bengal Assembly election results.

Rath was seated in the front passenger seat of a car when unidentified assailants arrived on a motorcycle, opened fire and fled the spot immediately after the attack.

The driver of the vehicle also sustained injuries in the incident.

Both Rath and the injured driver were rushed to a nearby hospital shortly afterwards. However, doctors declared Rath dead.

Following the incident, the West Bengal Police constituted an SIT to probe the murder and subsequently arrested two accused from Uttar Pradesh and an alleged sharpshooter from Buxar in Bihar.

The case was later handed over to the CBI because of the gravity and sensitivity of the crime.

After re-registering the matter as a regular case, the CBI invoked several sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), 2023, including Section 103(1) relating to murder, Section 61(1) pertaining to criminal conspiracy and Section 111(2)(a) concerning organised crime.

The agency has also invoked Sections 25 and 27 of the Arms Act in connection with the case.

Further investigation in the matter is currently underway.

–IANS

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