Kolkata: 2 boys out to buy bike with neighbour killed & dumped

KOLKATA: Two class X students who had left their Keshtopur home with a neighbour to buy a motorbike two weeks ago were strangled inside a moving car on the same evening and their bodies thrown into a canal off Basanti Expressway even as the father of one of the boys kept receiving ransom calls and messages for Rs 1 crore for his safe return.
It was only after the cops, while probing the abduction complaint arrested one of the accused on Monday that they realised the two boys had been killed 14 days ago and tracked the bodies to Basirhat police morgue, 50km away.

The last message, threatening to kill one of the boys if the ransom wasn't paid, came even on Tuesday when the parents had already identified their children at the police morgue.
The key accused, 24-year-old Satyendra Chaudhary, is a neighbour and a long-time friend of one of the victims. Four persons have been arrested by Bidhannagar Police, but Satyendra is still on the run.
Cousins Atanu Dey (16) and Bhaskar Naskar (15) left their homes in Baguiati on the afternoon of August 22. According to Atanu's father, his son went out to buy a second-hand bike with Satyendra, who used to deal in second-hand cars and bikes in the area.
"My son had paid Satyendra Rs 50,000 for the bike. I don't know how he managed to raise the money. But after he didn't return home at night, we first went to New Town police station, which is nearest to our home, but were directed to Baguiati police station. There the cops were initially reluctant to take a complaint but later registered a missing diary. It was from August 23 evening that we started receiving ransom calls and messages and a kidnapping FIR was drawn up," said Biswanath Dey, Atanu's father, a central government employee.
Over the next two weeks, the parents visited the police station several times even as they continued to receive text messages from the abductors, who however, never responded to calls.
Motive not yet clear, say cops
The first breakthrough in the murder of the schoolboys came on Monday, when cops arrested Abhijit Bose, an accomplice of Satyendra from Keshtopur crossing. "He broke down and confessed that he and the others had strangulated the two boys inside the car before dumping their bodies in the canal. He also gave away the whereabouts of three other accomplices - Shamim Ali (20), Sahil Molla (20) and Dibyendu Das (25)," said Biswajit Ghosh, deputy commissioner, detective department of Bidhannagar City Police. The car - a sedan registered with a self-driving car sharing platform - in which the teens were killed was also seized.
Based on Abhijit's confession, the cops reached out to Basirhat and Baruipur police. The Basirhat police told them about three unidentified bodies lying in morgue for over 10 days. The family members of Atanu and Abhishek identified their bodies on Tuesday afternoon.
Ghosh said Satyendra had summoned only Atanu, who had coaxed Abhishek to accompany him. Satyendra and his aides first took the two in a car to a bike showroom in Rajarhat but they didn't buy anything. They then left for a drive on Rajarhat Expressway. Sometime between 9.30pm and 10pm and somewhere near Malancha, the two boys were killed.
"But the motive behind the murder is still unclear. Atanu's family was on good terms with Satyendra but a problem had cropped up between the two over the Rs 50,000 that Atanu paid to Satyendra. But the amount is too small for a person to kill someone with the help of hired men. It looks like some rivalry may have cropped up. But we are certain that Abhishek wasn't the target," said a senior officer.
Angry locals at Jagatpur ransacked Satyendra's in-law's house. Satyendra's wife and child were rescued by cops. Sashi Panja, woman and child welfare minister, has sought a detailed report from the commissionerate as both the victims were minors.