The CBI is looking for CCTV camera footage of slain Congress councillor Tapan Kandu’s interaction with cops during his visit to Jhalda police station two days before his murder but the data is yet to be recovered from the hard disc.
Sources said some of the “important” CCTV footage of Jhalda police station that can help in the investigation also had gone missing.
“Tapan Kandu was called at Jhalda police station by the inspector-in-charge on March 11 evening only two days before his murder. The CBI is looking for the footage of Kandu’s interaction with cops but it could not be recovered yet,” said a source at Jhalda police station.
The central investigating agency has been trying to get the CCTV footage of new and old Jhalda police station premises since Wednesday but the Purulia police could not hand it over to them because of “password issues”.
Though the CBI is yet to get the crucial footage of Tapan’s interaction with cops, the agency has collected other CCTV footage related to Jhalda police station and its adjoining fire brigade station in a pen drive with the help of its technical expert team.
The CBI’s investigation into Tapan’s murder gathered momentum on Friday after the agency’s deputy inspector general (DIG), Akhilesh Singh, reached Jhalda on Friday.
The CBI has summoned the inspector-in-charge of Jhalda police station Sanjib Ghosh for interrogations but he is yet to respond. Sources said the Singh would interrogate Ghosh at the camp on Friday night.
Tapan’s wife Purnima Kandu and nephew Mithun Kandu had alleged that Ghosh was “intimidating” and “forcing” the Congress councillor over phone to switch over to the Trinamul and offered the post of vice-chairman to help the ruling party form the board.
The audio clip of the purported conversations between Ghosh and nephew Mithun had gone viral in the social media.
Purnima also lodged complained against Ghosh with the special investigating team (SIT) of Purulia police probing the councillor’s murder before the CBI taken over the case following a Calcutta High Court order.
“We have informed the CBI about the threat calls from Ghosh when they had come to our residence on Wednesday,” said Mithun.
The CBI has appealed before the court in Purulia to take over the cell phone and SIM card of Mithun in which the IC had allegedly called and intimidated Tapan. It is now seized by the SIT and in police custody.
The CBI on Thursday also interrogated Tapan’s friend a local CPM leader Ujjal Chattaraj in connection with the murder.
“Tapan Kandu was my friend and I want the truth to come out,” Chattaraj told scribes before entering the camp.
The CBI again inspected the place of occurrence of the murder. The CBI wants all CCTV footage of the entry and exit points of Jhalda town but no CCTV cameras were in place at the murder spot as it was deserted place.
On other hand, the Jhalda police on Thursday started a suo motu case against four Congress workers, including party councillor Biplab Kayal, for “attacking” policemen on duty and blocking public roads.
The police said they attacked policemen and blocked the public road on the day of formation of the board at Jhalda municipality.
However, the move triggered fresh controversy.
“The police are trying to harass our party men as they stood up against state-sponsored hooliganism and murder of Tapan Kandu,” said Nepal Mahato, Congress president in Purulia and former Jhalda MLA.
The police are yet to trace the mobile phone of Kandu’s friend Niranjan Baishnab also a witness to the murder. Niranjan was found hanging at his residence on Tuesday. A suicide note was also found from the room. His mobile phone had gone missing since then.
“We are trying to trace the mobile phone. We are also examining the handwriting of the suicide note if that matches with Niranjan’s,” said S. Selvamurugan, Purulia superintendent of police.
