One year has passed but the cops have failed to crack the two high-profile murder cases of two hoteliers of West Burdwan district as law and order is going to be a key issue in the forthcoming Lok Sabha polls.

Arvind Bhagat, a hotelier of posh Apcar Garden area was gunned down from close range in February 2023, under Asansol South Police Station by unidentified gunmen in the evening inside his own hotel.

The hotel is situated at a stone’s throw from the house of state’s law minister Moloy Ghatak. Though CCTV footage have been seized by the police and later by the CID after the murder, more than a year has passed but there has been no significant progress in this murder case.

Infact, The Asansol Durgapur Police Comissionerate (ADPC) police is still groping in the dark in the Arvind Bhagat murder case.

Similarly, on 31 March 2023, Rajesh Jha, owner of a branded five star hotel in City Centre of Durgapur and a resident of Bidhan Nagar in Durgapur was killed by unidentified assailants at Shaktigarh on his way to Kolkata by road.

The sharp shooters also shot him casually, when he was sitting in his SUV and walked away like in the case of Arvind Bhagat. Though the place of occurrence of the case was in Shaktigarh of East Burdwan Police district, but basically, he was a resident of Durgapur in West Burdwan district for several decades. CCTV footage in Langcha shops was also seized by the police.

He had interest in shopping malls, parking plazas, hotels, and restaurants and was also engaged in coal mining. He was also planning to set up a large multi speciality hospital in Durgapur with a reputed group.

Before the 2021 Assembly polls in the state Rajesh alias Raju Jha had joined the BJP.

Though a Special Investigation Team (SIT) was formed headed by the then SP of East Burdwan district, but the team failed to crack the case till date and one person Abhijit Mondal, arrested from Durgapur has already been released on bail by the high court.

“Yes, the law and order situation has really deteriorated in the district. Despite giving a CBI probe still the murder case of our former mayor Bamapada Mukherjee’s son Arpan Mukherjee has not been cracked and so is the case of former CPM MLA, Dilip Sarkar. The Left Front is also making law and order an issue in these polls,” said Jahanara Khan, CPM candidate for the Asansol Lok Sabha seat.

“We want that all these high profile murder cases from the past 13 years should be exposed,” said Bappa Chatterjee, BJP district president of Asansol.