The 12-member Special Investigation Team of East Burdwan Police today revealed that Abhijit Mondal, the driver-cum-site supervisor of another coal mafia Narayan Kharkathuki alias Nanda had supervised don’s murder from his phone

It is inter-gang rivalry of the coal mafiosi, as the police claimed that eventually led to the daring murder of Rajesh Jha, a don who’d instituted an empire of illegal coal smuggling and trafficking over a period of two decades from his ‘operating hubs’ in Raniganj and Durgapur in West Burdwan.

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Jha succumbed on the spot at Shaktigarh beside the NH 19 in East Burdwan on last 1 April after seven bullets were showered on him by two sharpshooters assigned by his rival gangsters, the police said.

The 12-member Special Investigation Team of East Burdwan Police today revealed that Abhijit Mondal, the driver-cum-site supervisor of another coal mafia Narayan Kharkathuki alias Nanda had supervised don’s murder from his phone.

According to SP, East Burdwan Kamanashis Sen, He left enough substantial evidence about his involvement in the murder. Last night, SIT booked him from Durgapur and we’d forwarded him to the court with a prayer for 14 days remand today.” With Abhijit, the police also picked up Taherul Qadri, a bouncer and Ravi Behera, a cook from Narayan’s office at posh City Centre locality in Durgapur. But both were released this evening.

Police seized a licensed firearm from Abhijit. He’d procured a license from Nagaland, police said. Three SIT members, Tirthendu Ganguly, Rakesh Singh and Dipankar Sarkar raided Narayan’s transport office last night and booked three. Abhijit hailing from Amarkanan village in Bankura lodged permanently in Durgapur after he joined as a driver of Narayan some 12 years ago.

Gradually, he became Narayan’s trusted henchman and was assigned to work as supervisor in Narayan’s valid transportation businesses at the slag bank of Durgapur Steel Plant and at the ash pond of Durgapur Projects power plant.

He gained more confidence after Narayan was charge-sheeted by the CBI in a coal smuggling case in 2020 and Abhijit alone handled Narayan’s office. The investigating officer today issued a notice in Narayan’s name, under Section 161 Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 for oral examination by the police.

Narayan, according to the district police officials, meanwhile has fled to a South India hideout. Abdul Latif Sheikh, a CBI charge-sheeted fugitive, who was accompanying Jha at the time of his murder, too disappeared mysteriously.