Four men, including a finance company owner, were arrested in connection with the incident where a 7mm pistol, two bullets and 16 crude bombs were found in an abandoned autorickshaw in a residential neighbourhood in Haridevpur on Saturday.
An officer attached with the probe said a business rivalry between the owner of the finance company that had impounded the autorickshaw and the owner of another finance company in the same neighbourhood allegedly led to the incident.
Police identified the arrested as Bhairab Bose, Swapan Mitra, Bablu Dolui and Ajit Das.
“Biswajit Biswas is the owner of the open garage where the autorickshaw was parked. He had impounded the vehicle last year when the owner of the vehicle had failed to repay a loan which he took to purchase the vehicle. There is another finance company in the neighbourhood owned by Bhairab Bose. Preliminary investigation suggests Bose hired men to plant the gun and the crude bombs in his business rival’s autorickshaw to land him in trouble,” said an officer of Haridevpur police station.
A polythene bag containing a 7mm pistol, two bullets and 16 crude bombs was found in the back seat of an autorickshaw that was parked in an open garage belonging to a finance company.
The auto of the Bijoygarh-Narendrapur route had been stationed in the open garage for more than a year, the police said.
Footage obtained from a CCTV camera in the locality showed two persons riding a two-wheeler putting a bag in the autorickshaw, the police said.
“The footage was very hazy. It showed that around 3.10am on April 19, two persons, one of them wearing a burqa, came on a two-wheeler, paused near the autorickshaw and kept a bag on its backseat,” said an officer.
From the registration number plate of the two-wheeler, the police zeroed in on its owner, Swapan Mitra.
“We contacted Swapan Mitra and it emerged that he was working at the behest of a finance company owner in the neighbourhood named Bhairab Bose,” said a senior police officer in the south west division.
Mitra had hired a youth, Bablu Dolui, who allegedly accompanied Mitra on his scooter to allegedly plant the gun and the bombs in the autorickshaw.
Further investigation by the police revealed that Mitra had allegedly procured the raw materials needed to prepare crude bombs and handed them over to Ajit Das, who is an expert in manufacturing crude bombs.
“Das delivered the crude bombs and sold a 7mm gun and two bullets to Mitra, which were all put in a polythene bag and then planted in the autorickshaw impounded by Biswajit Biswas,” the officer said.
All four allegedly involved in the case were arrested on Saturday night.
The arrested have been charged under sections of the Arms Act and under IPC for criminal conspiracy.