Kolkata, May 15 (IANS) The four-wheeler used in the assassination of Chandranath Rath, the deceased personal assistant (PA) of West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari, earlier this month, was sourced from neighbouring Jharkhand, preliminary investigation by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has revealed.

Sources said that, as per the confessions given by Mayank Raj Mishra, one of the three suspects arrested in the case, he was given the contract by a Jharkhand-based person to deliver the said four-wheeler from Jharkhand to Barasat in North 24 Parganas district, which is close to the place of the assassination of Rath at a crossing at Madhyamgram in the same district.

It is learnt that Mishra had confessed that he took the car from Jharkhand, drove all the way to Barasat and after reaching an abandoned place near Barasat rail gate, replaced the number plate with a fake one, the original of which is registered with the regional transport office (RTO) at Siliguri in Darjeeling district of West Bengal.

It is further learnt that Mayank has also confessed that he received an amount of Rs 1,00,000 to deliver the four-wheeler from Jharkhand to Barasat. After delivering the car at Barsat, Maynak, as confessed by him, went to Howrah Station, boarded a train and went to Buxar, where he was arrested.

Rath was murdered on the night of May 6, just two days after the results of the West Bengal Assembly elections were declared on May 4. The BJP candidates were declared victors from 207 Assembly constituencies, reducing the erstwhile ruling Trinamool Congress to just 80.

As Rath was on his way back home at Madhyamgram in North 24 Parganas district from a party programme on May 6 night, his vehicle was stopped at a particular crossing by the four-wheeler brought from Jharkhand.

As per the initial investigation, while Rath’s vehicle stopped after getting blocked by the four-wheeler, one of the two motorcycles that had been shadowing Rath’s vehicle for a long time stopped beside Rath’s vehicle. An assailant driving that motorcycle shot ten rounds of bullets from a close distance.

While Rath died on the spot, his driver, Buddhadeb Bera, was critically injured. Bera, however, is recovering fast.

Adhikari had claimed that Rath would not have been killed had he not been the personal assistant of the person who defeated former Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee in Bhabanipur in South Kolkata by a margin of over 15,000 votes.

–IANS

src/dpb