The prime accused in the Baguiati double murders had sold his mobile phone for around Rs 6,000 at Chandni Chowk in central Calcutta, allegedly after deleting the data and formatting the device to its factory settings, a CID officer said on Saturday.
CID sleuths said this was one of the phones Satyendra Chowdhury had allegedly used to demand ransom from Atanu Dey’s family after killing him and his cousin Abhishek Naskar.
Investigators said they recovered the phone from a shop at Chandni Chowk on Friday night where Chowdhury had sold it earlier this week after Atanu and Abhishek’s bodies were found at a morgue in Basirhat and the news about their death became public.
After his production at Barasat court on Friday, the police took Chowdhury to Chandni Chowk market where he said he had sold his phone, CID officers said.
A senior officer said it was suspected that Chowdhury sold his phone for the money.
“He could have thrown the phone or broken it just after committing the crime. But he chose to sell it at a shop. He had thought that mere formatting the phone and deleting the data would be enough to keep him safe,” said the officer.
Another CID officer said it was clear that Chowdhury was in need of money, which was why he had called asking for Rs 3,000.
The police said Chowdhury had used multiple mobile phones and SIM cards for making ransom calls and sending text messages demanding ransom from the families of the deceased boys.
Chowdhury was arrested on Friday morning minutes after he made a call to a contact asking for Rs 3,000 from a travel agency near Howrah station. Chowdhury had been visiting the same travel agency for the last three days trying to purchase a ticket for Mumbai, the owner of the travel agency had told The Telegraph on Friday after Chowdhury’s arrest from his shop.
The police said they seized the phone that he had used for making the call from the travel agency. The android phone recovered from a shop at Chandni Chawk has also been seized and will be sent for forensic analysis for retrieving data that has been wiped off because it was formatted.
Chowdhury was taken SSKM Hospital for a medical examination on Saturday as part of routine practice for accused in police remand.