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Fake plate, erased chassis: Small car's role emerges in killing of Suvendu Adhikari's aide Chandranath Rath
Police suspect the attackers used the car to force Rath’s vehicle to slow near a traffic signal.
A small hatchback's role has emerged as cops probe the murder of Chandranath Rath, personal assistant to senior BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari, in Bengal. The car allegedly blocked Rath's white Scorpio when he was on his way back to his residence at Madhyamgram in North 24 Parganas. Moments later, three men on two bikes emerged and opened fire at Adhikari's aide.
The small car used a fake number plate and police later traced the cloned registration number to a vehicle owned by a Siliguri resident who had recently advertised his car for sale on OLX.
Police suspect the attackers used the car to force Rath’s vehicle to slow near a traffic signal, after which the assailants riding motorcycles opened fire and fled the scene.
"A suspicious vehicle that allegedly blocked the way of Rath's car has been seized. However, the number plate attached to it was found to be fake," DGP Siddh Nath Gupta told reporters at the spot.
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Nissan Micra used in killing?
Police officials said the car, a small Nissan Micra hatchback, was allegedly used to block Rath’s SUV after it slowed near a traffic signal in Madhyamgram on Wednesday night.
Investigators believe the shooters fled in the same vehicle after opening fire and later abandoned it at a deserted location before escaping, possibly on motorcycles or in another vehicle to move more easily through crowded roads.
Talking about the crime, another police officer said that the small car was spotted travelling towards Madhyamgram in CCTV footage.
"The chassis number and engine number of the small car have been erased. It indicates that they had earlier planned the murder. The number of the small vehicle belongs to one person based in Siliguri, an employee of a tea estate," he said.
Police suspect the assailants deliberately used a cloned registration number to avoid being tracked after the killing.
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OLX and a Siliguri registration number
It seemed that the killers copied the registration number and used it so that they could not be traced, the officer said.
Investigators later found that the registration number displayed on the seized Nissan Micra actually belonged to a different vehicle owned by a Siliguri resident, William Joseph.
Police said Joseph’s car - a separate make carrying the same licence plate number - was still parked at his home in Siliguri, around 557 km away from Madhyamgram.
Joseph reportedly told police that he had recently posted an advertisement on OLX to sell his vehicle, a detail investigators are now examining as part of the probe into how the registration number may have been duplicated.
Rath, a close aide of senior BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari, was seemingly returning home to Madhyamgram from Kolkata when he was attacked. His residence is located not far from the spot where he was killed.
"The victim was brought dead with two bullet injuries on his chest, which pierced his heart, while another bullet struck his abdominal area. There was no opportunity to resuscitate him," a doctor at the hospital told PTI.
(With inputs from Joydeep Thakur, Tanmay Chatterjee and agencies)
