Mridha (26) was shot dead by unknown assailants on July 12, 2011, on the Belgharia Expressway. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Friday questioned the parents of a software engineer who was found dead in 2011. The agency arrested a former girlfriend of Junior Mridha earlier this week.
Sources said Mridha’s parents were questioned to fill in some of the missing links in the case. Sources said investigators would use their comments to corroborate the statement of Mridha’s ex-girlfriend Priyanka Chowdhury, who is the former daughter-in-law of Mohun Bagan football club vice-president Balaram Chowdhury.
Mridha (26) was shot dead by unknown assailants on July 12, 2011, on the Belgharia Expressway. Initially, the death was believed to be the result of a motorbike accident. But, his family members could not find any mark of accidental injury on the body, except a small hole near the backbone, when they visited the Baranagar State General Hospital. There were also no scratches on the bike. The autopsy established that Mridha was shot dead.
On the basis of an FIR was lodged at Baranagar police station on July 13, the police started investigating the case. According to the police, Priyanka became friends with Mridha over Facebook. The two began dating in 2006. But no one in the software engineer’s family reportedly knew that she was married. Three months before the murder, one evening Mridha’s family saw her on a popular television show talking about her then father-in-law’s house. Priyanka was also wearing sindoor, according to the victim’s family. Mridha’s family then asked the two to break up. The 26-year-old, who was shocked by the turn of events, allegedly stopped talking to Priyanka.
The accused allegedly asked Mridha to meet her at a place they used to frequent. According to officials, once the victim left home she told him that she would not be able to meet him. Later, his body was found on the expressway. The probe was handed over to the Criminal Investigation Department on July 19, 2017. Later, the Calcutta High Court gave the investigation to the CBI, which registered a case in August 2019.
The CBI is now trying to locate an unidentified man seen riding the bike with Mridha on July 11, the day before his murder. The agency produced Priyanka Chowdhury in the court of the Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate of Barrackpore on Wednesday. The court remanded her to CBI custody for seven days.