The CBI on Thursday interrogated the inspector-in-charge (IC) of Jhalda police station for over three hours in connection with the March 13 murder of Congress councillor Tapan Kandu and the unnatural death of Niranjan Baishnab, who was an eye-witness to the crime.

The IC, Sanjib Ghosh, arrived at the camp office of the central investigating agency in Jhalda around 11am and left after three hours. He refused to speak to the media on what transpired.

The questioning was necessitated after the complaint lodged by Tapan’s wife Purnima, also a Congress councillor, accused the IC of trying to intimidate the Congress leader to join Trinamul.

The alleged pressure was put on Tapan after the civic polls in Jhalda held in February threw up a hung board. In the 12-member board, Trinamul and the Congress had won five seats each and the remaining two were won by Independent candidates.

Purnima alleged that IC Ghosh was putting pressure on her husband to switch over to Trinamul over phone and offered him the post of vice-chairman at the local civic body if he did.

The IC allegedly made a call to Tapan’s nephew Mithun Kandu from a Congress worker’s phone. An audio clip of the purported conversation surfaced on social media. The CBI has already collected the clip and sent it for forensic tests. The CBI will also interrogate the Congress worker from whose phone the call was made.

Purnima also alleged that the IC summoned Tapan two days before his murder at the police station and threatened to slap fake charges on him if he didn’t join Trinamul.

The CBI from the CCTV footage collected from Jhalda police station found Tapan had visited the police station two days before his murder.

Sources said that CBI asked Ghosh to explain the audio clip and whether he had intimidated Tapan. The CBI also asked him why the policemen patrolling near the spot where the murder took place on March 13 evening did not respond immediately and why they remained indifferent.

Sources said Ghosh during the interrogations at times chose to remain silent and sometimes denied the charges against him.

The CBI also came to know that Ghosh did not visit the spot after the murder, which also raised questions.

“That the local IC did not visit the place of occurrence after such murder is not acceptable. The IC did not answer many questions,” said a CBI source.

Ghosh was earlier called by the CBI but he did not turn up.

The CBI also questioned Ghosh how many times Niranjan Baishnab was summoned at the police station and whether the eye-witness to Tapan’s murder had given the police anything in writing related to the murder.

Baishnab’s body was found hanging at his residence on April 6. A purported note stating his mental stress following repeated summons by the police and the memory of the murder of his childhood friend Tapan was found in the room from where the body was recovered.

His elder brother Nepal Baishnab on Thursday handed over this note to the CBI.