Posse Comitatus Blog

Five persons, including a Class-XI and a first-year college student, were arrested on Monday in connection with the murder of schoolteacher Barun Biswas, the crusader who had set up the Pratibadi Mancha in ‘rape village’ Sutia. The Class-XI student is suspected to have fired at Biswas at the Gobardanga railway station on Thursday.

Police said that the prime accused in the Sutia gang-rape cases, Sushanta Chowdhury, had plotted the murder from the prison. Chowdhury is currently serving his sentence at the Dum Dum Correctional Home. He met his close associate Shubhankar Biswas about one-and-a-half months back during the hearing of his case at the Bongaon court. During the meeting, he probably instructed Shubhankar to hire contract killers.

To implement Chowdhry’s plan, Subhankar roped in the first-year BSc student, who studies in a Bongaon college and is reportedly a member of the Trinamool Chhatra Parishad. According to police, the student wanted to study engineering and was in need of money for coaching classes. Shubhankar used this as an opportunity and lured him with “offers” that the student could not turn down. To assist him in the act, he took into confidence another student, who studies in a Bongaon school.

According to police officers, Shubhankar and the college student met Sushanta at the prison about a month ago. They sealed a “deal” in which the two students were promised Rs 3 lakh for killing Barun Biswas. After the contract was finalized, the two youths started working on their plan. According to investigators, the duo had been trailing Barun for about three weeks.

“The duo had tried to kill Barun when the latter had visited a relative at a hospital in Ghola some days ago. But they missed the opportunity as their target was always crowded by others. They then planned to kill him on his way back from school,” said a police source.

Before his death, Barun had given a vivid description of his killer to uncle Atal Biswas. He had said that a young boy who sat beside him in the train had fired at him. The killer got off with Barun at Gobardanga station and fired at him when Barun was about to start his motor cycle. The description given by the victim helped the police nab his killers.

Police arrested the five after a night-long raid by personnel from police stations of Gopalnagar, Bongoan, Baduria and Gaighata and the Bongaon GRP. Apart from the two students, cops arrested Shubhankar Biswas alias Photke, Raju Sardar and Biswajit Biswas alias Bisho.

“The case is being registered with the GRP Bongaon. Few people have been arrested during a joint raid by the GRP and our district police. The raid is still on,” said a senior police official.

Earlier, police had arrested Bhim Biswas soon after Barun’s murder. Villagers in Sutia, however, said that many accused in the gang-rape case are still roaming freely in the village.”The likes of Amit Poddar alias Bablu are still roaming freely in the area. Unless all the gang members are arrested, we fear the gang will reorganise,” said a rape victim.