Alipurduar district police cracked a murder case within 24 hours of finding the skeleton of a 19-year-old in the Buxa Tiger Reserve (BTR).

Sources said on Sunday morning, officers of the forest department spotted the skeleton while patrolling a stretch of the west division of the BTR. The stretch is under the jurisdiction of the Hamiltonganj forest range.

They passed on the information to Kalchini police and soon, a team rushed to the spot. Along with the skeleton, the team recovered a shirt, trousers and a jacket from the spot.

“The skeleton was sent for post-mortem. It was revealed that the person was killed and didn’t die in a wild animal attack,” said a police officer.

The police continued the probe and soon learnt that the victim was Adesh Goala, a resident of Chalsa under the jurisdiction of Matiali police station in the neighbouring Jalpaiguri district.

The police came to know that on November 19, Adesh, along with some of his friends, had been to a fair at Hamiltonganj, which is in Kalchini block of Alipurduar. Around midnight, Adesh, who was supposed to visit the Basra riverbank for Chhath celebrations, went missing.

The police found during the probe that Adesh was introduced to Milan Oraon and Sanju Oraon, both residents of Forward Nagar, a locality in Hamiltonganj.

“He asked them to guide him to the riverbank and the duo promised to take him there through a short-cut route. Adesh was convinced as he was new in the area. The duo, however, had plans to steal the cash and a smartphone that the youth was
carrying,” the police officer said.

Instead of taking him to the riverbank, the duo took Adesh to the forest. There, Milan took out a dagger and slashed Adesh’s neck. As he collapsed on the ground, Sanju, who was also carrying a knife, hacked him repeatedly.

After confirming that Adesh had died, they left his body on the spot and fled.

“After meeting the duo, Adesh had clicked a photo of him with them and had sent it to one of his friends via Whatsapp. This helped us. As he didn’t return home, his family members had filed a complaint at Kalchini police station,” said a police source.

After the skeleton and the dress were found in the forest, the police found that in the photo, Adesh was wearing the same garments. They also got photos of Milan and Sanju and started searching for them.

Both of them were arrested on Sunday night. On Monday, they were produced in a court in Alipurduar. The court remanded the duo in police custody for three days.

“We could crack the case within 24 hours after the skeleton was found,” said Y. Raghuvamshi, SP, Alipurduar.