The prime suspect in the murder of two 17-year-old boys from Calcutta was arrested in West Bengal's Howrah district on Friday morning, police said.

Satyendra Choudhury, the alleged mastermind in the twin murder case, was apprehended by a special team from Howrah railway station, a senior officer of the Bidhannagar Police Commissionerate said.

The boys were residents of Baguiati in northeast Calcutta.

The prime suspect in the case was apprehendede at a time when he was trying to escape from here, he said.

Four alleged accomplices of Choudhury were earlier held in connection with the incident.

The bodies of two boys were found at a morgue in Basirhat on September 6, almost a fortnight after they went missing. The police later said that the duo was strangled to death.

Local police in the Malancha area of North 24 Parganas district had spotted the bodies on Basanti Highway and taken them to the morgue.

The West Bengal government had on Wednesday suspended the inspector in charge and another officer of the Baguiati Police Station, where a missing complaint was lodged by the parents of the boys.

The case was handed over to the state CID from Baguiati PS under the Bidhannagar Police Commissionerate, the officer said.

Both the Criminal Investigation Department and the Bidhannagar police were on trail of the main accused who had allegedly taken away the two boys from Baguiati on the pretext of helping them buy a second-hand bike on August 22 and two days later, demanded a ransom of Rs 1 crore.

The ransom demand was made after the killing of the two boys in a car, the officer added.

The two teenagers were made to sit on the lap of three of their assailants in the back seat of the Maruti Dzire in which they were abducted, an accused had apparently told CID sleuths.

An officer said a car that can accommodate five persons, including the driver, was occupied by eight that night.

“According to one of the accused, Satyendra Chowdhury, the prime accused, was sitting next to the driver and turned back to strangle the two boys, who were being held tightly by his three accomplices. The boys were made to sit on the lap of the accomplices. This version of the accused is being verified,” an investigator said on Thursday.

CID sleuths had collected multiple CCTV camera footage from the hotel in New Town where Chowdhury and his accomplices had allegedly met to plan the operation.

A team of investigators and more than eight forensic officials had collected samples from the spots along the canal at Nazat and Haroa in Basirhat, in North 24-Parganas, where the bodies of Atanu Dey and Abhishek Naskar were found on August 23.