Two arrested for kidnapping, murder of gold trader in Bengal

Kolkata, Nov 8 (IANS) The police have arrested two persons in connection with the kidnapping and murder of a gold trader from the West Midnapore district of West Bengal.

The family of the deceased businessman named Swapan Kamilya had filed a complaint against Rajganj Block Development Officer (BDO) Prashant Barman in Jalpaiguri district for the kidnapping and murder.

The police on Saturday said that the driver of the Rajganj BDO and his friend have been arrested. According to police sources, the accused have been identified as Raju Dhali and Tufan Thapa. Raju Dhali is a resident of the Rajarhat area in New Town. He is the driver of the Rajganj BDO. The other person, Tufan, is said to be a friend of the BDO.

Meanwhile, CCTV footage has come into the hands of police officers investigating the crime. Sources said it was captured in the footage that the body was being removed in a vehicle with a blue light on top of it.

On Saturday, the accused were produced in the Bidhannagar Sub-divisional Court, where the judge ordered police custody of the arrested for 12 days.

It may be recalled that on October 28, Swapan Kamilya's body was recovered from a ditch in the Jatragachi area in the New Town near Kolkata. His house is in Dilmatia village of Mohanpur police station in West Midnapore district. He has a gold shop in Duttabad in the Salt Lake area of Kolkata. Last August, some gold jewellery was stolen from the house of Rajganj BDO Prashant Barman.

According to the police, the caretaker of the house claimed that he had sold the stolen gold to Swapan Kamilya. Similarly, Rajganj BDO Prashant Barman went to Swapan Kamilya's house in the West Midnapore district. Swapan was not at home at that time. The BDO had allegedly threatened to kill him. Swapan's family has handed over one such video to the Mohanpur police station.

According to the police, later, the BDO of Rajganj contacted Swapan Kamilya. At that time, the gold merchant promised to return the gold jewellery.

Accordingly, on October 27, Prashant Barman came to Swapan Kamilya's gold shop in Duttabad. Five other people were with him. Allegedly, Swapan and his house owner were picked up in a car and were taken towards New Town. After going some distance, the landlord was dropped off. The landlord could not say where Swapan was taken.

The next day, Swapan's bloody body was found in a ditch in Jatragachi. According to police sources, there were multiple injury marks on the body.

On November 5, Swapan's brother-in-law, Debashis Kamilya, filed a written complaint at Bidhannagar South police station, and a case was registered against Rajganj BDO Prashant Barman under the sections of kidnapping and murder and destruction of evidence. The BDO, however, denied such allegations.

--IANS

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