The detective department of Asansol-Durgapur police commissionerate has drawn a sketch of one of the two assailants in consultation with eyewitnesses to the murder of hotelier Arvind Bhagat and shared it with Jharkhand and Bihar police teams as well.

“One assailant wore a helmet and a face cover. But the other wore a cap and so we could sketch him,” said an investigating officer.

The investigators said the assailants spoke in Hindi. Pastcrime records in Asansol showed involvement of interstate “professional hitmen”.

Bhagat was shot dead by two assailants at Hotel Meera International, owned by him, some 200m from the home of minister Molay Ghatak on Friday. The CID and the detective department are probing the murder separately, but without a breakthrough.

Sleuths found some WhatsApp texts in Bhagat’s phone deleted by the sender after his murder. “They were sent by a woman employee. She said they were sent by mistake and so she deleted them,” said an officer.

The CID on Monday questioned Bhagat’s wife and two daughters but they couldn’t name a suspect.