The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) team probing the murder of Tapan Kandu, a Congress Councillor from Jhalda municipality in Purulia district of West Bengal, on Wednesday identified some crucial clues in course of the probe and made its first-ever arrest in this case.
The person taken into custody by CBI sleuths on Wednesday was Satyaban Pramanik, the owner of a popular dhaba in Jhalda.
The central agency sources said the detailed plan to assassinate Tapan Kandu was plotted at this dhaba, adding that on the basis of specific clues, they detained the dhaba owner late Tuesday evening to question him.
On Wednesday afternoon, after the agency sleuths became sure of Pramanik’s active involvement in planning the murder after which he was taken into custody.
Later, he was produced before a lower court in Purulia district, which remanded him to a four-day police custody.
This is the fifth arrest so far in connection with the probe of the Congress Councillor’s murder.
The first four arrests were made by the special investigation team of the West Bengal police which included Tapan Kandu’s elder brother Naren Kandu, the latter’s son Deepak Kandu and two contract killers — Kalebar Singh and Ashique Khan. Naren Kandu was a regular visitor to the dhaba.
A CBI source said there are enough reasons to believe that a section of the police personnel of Jhalda police station were involved directly or indirectly with the assassination of Kandu.
The agency’s sources added that the main question is that although police personnel were present at a police post from the assassination site, they reached there much later after the murder.
Tapan Kandu was murdered on March 13 evening while he went for an evening walk with his wife Purnima Kandu.
His close associate, Nirnajan Baishnab, who was a key witness to the murder, committed suicide on April 6.
Following orders of the Calcutta High Court, CBI conducted parallel probe in both these cases.