The CBI has filed a chargesheet against five persons in the killing of Tapan Kandu, Congress councillor from the Jhalda Municipality in West Bengal, officials said on Tuesday.

In its chargesheet filed before Chief Judicial Magistrate, Purulia, the Central Bureau of Investigation has named Dipak Kandu, Kalebar Singh, Naren Kandu, Md Asik and Satyaban Pramanik as accused.

The CBI had taken over the investigation of the case from the West Bengal Police on April 6, 2022, on the orders of the Calcutta High Court.

It was alleged that Tapan Kandu was shot dead by three motorcycle-borne persons near his residence in Jhalda at around 5.15 pm on March 13 this year when he was returning with friends from evening walk through Bagmundi Road, CBI Spokesperson RC Joshi said.

Kandu had collapsed and was rushed to Jhalda Hospital and from there he was taken to Ranchi Hospital, where he was declared dead.

Justice Rajasekhar Mantha had directed the central agency on April 4 to submit a report on its investigation in the case in 45 days.

The high court had ordered the probe by the central agency on the petition of councillor's widow Purnima Kandu who had moved it seeking a CBI investigation in the murder of her husband, alleging complicity of local police in the case.

Her counsel had submitted before the court that the superintendent of police of Purulia district in a press conference had given a clean chit to the inspector in-charge of Jhalda police station even before the probe by the state police was completed.