Manhunt for Bengal cattle scam accused in businessman’s murder; CM targets BJP
Rajesh Jha, who was shot dead on April 1, owned several businesses, including a shopping mall and hotels in Durgapur town of the West Burdwan district where he lived.
KOLKATA: Abdul Latif, who was declared an absconder in a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) charge sheet in the cattle smuggling case, is wanted in connection with the April 1 murder of businessman Rajesh Jha, said East Burdwan district police officers probing the killing.
Jha, who joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in 2020 and was facing a probe for illegal coal mining operations, was shot dead by unidentified people in front of an eatery on NH-2 in East Burdwan district while he was travelling in Abdul Latif’s SUV.
The murder, suspected to have been carried out by professional hitmen, has triggered a political slugfest.
Chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday targeted the BJP while addressing a Trinamool Congress (TMC) workers meeting at East Midnapore district. “A coal mafia was killed. Who used to go to his hotel? With which, Union minister did he have a connection? Who was he funding? Why are you (BJP) so silent on this incident?”
Jha owned several businesses, including a shopping mall and hotels in Durgapur town of the West Burdwan district where he lived.
An investigating officer said on condition of anonymity that Sheikh Noor Hossain, who was driving the SUV at the time of the attack, told the police that he drove Abdul Latif from his residence in Birbhum district’s Ilambazar to Durgapur on April 1.
“Hossain said Latif, Jha and Brotin Mukherjee, the latter’s associate, were travelling in the SUV from Durgapur to Kolkata. They stopped at an eatery in Shaktigarh where the killers opened fire. While Jha died, Mukherjee sustained a bullet injury in the arm. Latif has been missing since then,” the officer added.
Witnesses told police that they heard the firing and saw the assailants leave in a blue hatchback car that sped towards Kolkata. Hours later, the car was found abandoned on the old Grand Trunk Road and some cartridges were recovered from the vehicle.
Jha was found dead in the front seat of the SUV while Mukherjee was lying injured on the rear seat.
According to a second East Burdwan police officer, the driver told investigators that Latif was in the car when the shooting took place but Mukherjee claimed Latif was not travelling with them on the day.
“Mukherjee is being interrogated repeatedly because security camera footage showed Latif standing near the SUV before the shooting took place. He could be seen talking to someone over the phone,” the officer said.
During hearings in the cattle smuggling case, CBI told a court that Latif was a close associate of Anubrata Mondal, the TMC’s Birbhum district unit president who is now in Delhi’s Tihar Jail. Mondal was arrested by CBI in August 2022.
Jha, who was more popular among his associates as ‘Raju’, joined the BJP months before the 2021 assembly elections.
Days later, he was back in the custody of the state police in connection with a coal smuggling case. “Jha has been arrested several times in the last 10 years,” said an officer.
Countering the chief minister, Bengal BJP’s chief spokesperson Samik Bhattacharya said she should first disclose in public why Abdul Latif, a man known to be close to TMC leaders, was travelling with Jha.
“Let her (Banerjee) first say what was Latif doing in the vehicle in which Jha was murdered. She should disclose Latif’s current location. Once she replies, BJP will answer her questions,” Bhattacharya said.
Dilip Dey, president of the BJP’s Asansol unit in West Burdwan, said that Jha moved away from the party after the 2021 elections.