Drones & divers search for Tangra youth's body, 4 nabbed for murder

KOLKATA: The detective department has arrested four persons, including the prime suspects - a factory owner at Tiljala and his wife - for allegedly killing a 30-year-old youth of Tangra and then trying to cover up the crime 12 days after he went missing from home.
The trader Golam Rabbani (25) and his wife Noor Ayesha (23) were arrested from Delhi on Thursday while Golam's brother Imran Rabbani and his maternal uncle Sk Reyaz were arrested in Kolkata on Friday for helping them dispose of the body and hiding the evidence of crime.
Since Thursday cops have been searching for the body of the youth, Jhunnu Rana, in the canal of Tiljala from Ambedkar Bridge near Basanti Highway where the accused had dumped his body on March 3.
Divers from the disaster management group have been pressed into service to look for the body while cops are also using drones for this purpose.
Neither the motive behind the murder, nor the circumstances leading to the death of the youth is still clear to the police. Sources said Reyaz rode the van rickshaw in which the youth's body was carried to the canal.
"On Friday evening, we arrested Imran, the younger brother of Golam, based on the latter's statement. Imran painted the blood-stained walls of the room, where Jhunnu was murdered, to suppress the evidence," said joint CP (crime), Shankha Subhra Chakrabarty. The probe so far has shown that Rana was last spotted with Golam on March 3. The accused had consumed alcohol at China Town with the victim and an associate, Dipu who told cops that he had left for his residence from the hotel.
"The CCTV footage showed Jhunnu walking with Golam towards his residence near Tiljala police station around 4.45pm. Around 7.25pm, Golam was seen coming out of his residence, but Jhunnu was not there. Instead, another youth was accompanying him. Cops said that Golam had switched off his mobile around 10.05pm," said Ram Nahadur Lal, the victim's uncle. The Rabbani couple had left home the next day, carrying three trolley bags
Initially, cops had suspected that Golam had murdered the youth for "allegedly misbehaving" with his wife. But the probe took a new turn as Ayesha claimed to have hit Jhunnu with a hammer when he had made advances at her after her husband went out to buy some items.
"With no witnesses, we have to cross-check her claims. It can be a ploy for self-defence," said an officer.
"Ayesha told cops that after dumping the youth's body, they took a train from Santragachhi to Kharagpur and then left for Bhubaneswar, from where they took a train for Bengaluru. After spending a couple of days in Bengaluru, they travelled to Hyderabad by bus and moved to a kin's house in Delhi. Golam tried to use a new SIM card and came under the police scanner," said joint CP, Chakrabarty.
Cops are probing the family claim that he might have been killed for protesting against illegal parking.