One person was arrested on Saturday in connection with the murder of a trader in Regent Park on Friday afternoon.
Dilip Singh Chauhan, in his early 40s, had died after succumbing to bullet injuries, the firing allegedly triggered after the victim allegedly splashed colours on one of his friend’s wife forcibly and the latter opened fire in retaliation.
Dilip, a resident of Regent Park’s Notun Pally, died within an hour of being admitted to SSKM Hospital.
On Saturday afternoon, police arrested Sujit Mallick from Falta in Diamond Harbour for allegedly killing Dilip.
Cops who have been tracking Sujit’s mobile phone since Friday evening, had observed that the last time he switched on his mobile phone was at a location close to Joka.
Since then a team of investigators left for parts of South 24-Parganas and finally managed to catch him from an undisclosed destination in Falta on Saturday.
“Our preliminary interrogation suggests that Dilip went to Sujit’s house on Friday morning and in his presence, splashed colours on his wife despite her resisting it,” said a senior police officer.
“After this Dilip apparently told Sujit that he wanted to marry his wife if he was ready to part ways with her.”
Police have learnt that Sujit, who was a contractual worker in Pailan, did not react to Dilip’s words letting the moment pass. Both of them were childhood friends and would often call one another as bhai, investigators said. After Dilip left for his home Sujit walked out of his house. He told his wife he would be back soon.
“An hour-and-a-half later Sujit turned up at Dilip’s place, who was then busy drinking alcohol with his brother-in-law and a few others. After a brief interaction, he pulled out a gun and fired at Dilip,” the officer said. Some residents rushed out of their homes when they heard gunshots. Some of them later found Dilip lying in a pool of blood.
The police said they were still clueless about how a contractual worker could get on a country-made revolver within an hour-and-a-half.
“We would want to interrogate him whether his decision to fire was spurred by a heat of the moment or a fall out of any long standing grudge,” said a police officer.
Doctors at the hospital told police that the victim died of hemorrhagic shock due to acute loss of blood.
Injured in accident on way for check-up
A man from Howrah who was headed for a medical check-up at a New Town nursing home was injured after the car he was travelling in was hit by another from behind at a traffic signal near Eco Park on Saturday.
The car in which the 48-year-old man was travelling had stopped on the Major Arterial Road when the signal turned red, police said. The driver of a car behind him could not brake in time and hit the vehicle.
The police identified the driver of the offending vehicle as Pranab Kundu, a resident of Barrackpore. He was prosecuted for rash and negligent driving.
A Staff Reporter