Kolkata abduction case: 5 more held; police looking for journalist
Homemaker Swity Nath Roy alleged in her police complaint on Tuesday that her husband Ajit Roy was taken away by some men claiming to be CBI officers. Later, the family started getting calls where initially ₹2 crore were sought as ransom but the alleged kidnappers eventually settled for ₹15 lakh
The Kolkata Police has arrested five more people in connection with a kidnapping in which the accused posed as officers of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to collect a ransom of ₹15 lakh from a family.
The alleged crime took place in the Kasba area of south Kolkata on Monday.
The five accused have been identified as Anirban Kanjilal, Arghya Sengupta, Raju Mondal, Zulfikar Ali, and Asraf Ali. While the first three live in the southern outskirts of Kolkata, the last two are residents of Sasan in North 24 Parganas district.
They will be produced in court on Thursday. More raids are being conducted, said Murlidhar Sharma Sharma, joint commissioner of police (crime).
Avishek Sengupta, a journalist who worked with a newly launched Bengali news channel, is also a suspect and the police are looking for him. The news channel where he worked has issued a statement saying Sengupta was on probation and has been suspended.
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Naming Sengupta, the channel said, “As an organisation with zero tolerance towards such abhorrent criminal acts, the said probationer was immediately suspended on Tuesday evening pending a thorough probe into the matter.” The channel also said Sengupta was untraceable and could not be reached over the phone.
Homemaker Swity Nath Roy alleged in her police complaint on Tuesday that her husband Ajit Roy was taken away by some men claiming to be CBI officers. Later, the family started getting calls where initially ₹2 crore were sought as ransom but the alleged kidnappers eventually settled for ₹15 lakh. A friend of the family gave the money to the kidnappers and Roy was released, said Sharma.
Earlier, Swarup Roy and Pratik Sarkar, who allegedly posed as CBI officers, and Rajesh Adhikari, the driver of the vehicle used in the abduction, were arrested.