Police arrest mason for Murshidabad murders, but BJP still sees hand of ‘jihadi elements’

Police claim Pal had history of duping people who invested in his insurance business. Bengal BJP says it doesn't believe in cops' theory, wants CBI probe.

Bandhu Prakash Pal and his wife Beauty Pal | Twitter

Kolkata/Jiaganj: A week after the brutal murder of an ‘RSS sympathiser’ school teacher, his pregnant wife and seven-year-old son in West Bengal’s Murshidabad district snowballed into a major political row with communal overtones, police Tuesday claimed to have made a breakthrough with the arrest of a 20-year-old man.

The accused, Utpal Behera, is a mason and lived in a village close to the victims’ house in Jiaganj town. Police said he has confessed to the crime.

Bandhu Prakash Pal (35), his wife Beauty (30) and their son Angan were found lying in a pool of blood in their house on 8 October, the day of Vijaya Dashami.

A senior police officer in Murshidabad district said the murders were the result of a financial dispute between Behera and Pal.

Police investigation, however, also found that Pal, who was also involved in insurance business, duped several people of their money and that there was anger among them because of this.

Speaking to ThePrint, a senior police officer privy to the investigation, said Pal appeared to be “like a miniature version of former Saradha group chairman Sudipta Sen“. Sen is in jail for his alleged involvement in the multi-crore Saradha chit fund scam.

RSS has now said it would see “what happens at the trial phase in the case”, with its state secretary Jishnu Bose slamming the police for taking one full week to make the first arrest and demanding a speedy probe. 

State BJP leaders, however, said they still believed some “jihadi elements” were involved in the murder.

“We do not believe in this investigation. Whenever a BJP worker dies, police call it a suicide or a family dispute. We stand by our demand and comments. We still believe some jihadi elements are involved,” said BJP’s state general secretary Sayantan Basu.

Planned murder, says police

Police said Behera had given Rs 48,000 to Pal for the purpose of investing in some insurance schemes, but the latter had not given him a receipt.

Behera was asking Pal to either give him a receipt or return the entire amount, said the police, adding that this led to several arguments between the two.

“A couple of days before 5 October, an ugly fight broke out between Prakash Pal and Utpal after Prakash made some casteist comments and abused Utpal and his father. Since then, Utpal had been looking for a chance to kill him. The crime was not committed on the spur of a moment, it was meticulously planned,” said Murshidabad Superintendent of Police Mukesh Kumar.

The SP said Behera did a recce of Pal’s house on 5 October and then bought a sharp weapon.

On Vijaya Dashami, Behera turned up at the victims’ house in the afternoon and first killed Pal in front of his wife and son, said the police. Behera then killed the woman and the child by slitting their throats. The police said the accused stabbed the woman multiple times when she tried to resist. 

“Three people were murdered in six minutes between 12.06 pm and 12.12 pm. The last call that went from Beauty’s phone was at 12.03 pm. We recovered a pair of slippers, a bag from the spot and those belong to Utpal,” the SP said.

“We have made the first and only arrest in the case today…The tower location of the accused’s mobile phone revealed that he was there at the spot at the time of the murder. He tried to initially mislead us by saying that he went to see Durga Puja there. Last night (Monday), he confessed to the crime,” Kumar said.

A team of CID’s homicide section also interrogated Behera. Police have sought a 14-day remand for the accused.

Pal ‘duped’ many in the name of insurance

The police, during investigation, found that Pal had a history of duping people who gave him money to invest in insurance schemes.

“We interrogated more than 100 people in the case. Many of them, especially the residents of Sahapur where Prakash built his first house with his mother, complained that he duped many people in the name of insurance,” said a police officer.

“He used to collect deposits but did not give receipts for that. This had been his practice since 2004. People trusted him as he was a teacher and also the son of a teacher. Recently, he was dealing with a company that provides loans to villagers, which also appears fake to us. We are probing into it. He cheated many by selling anti-radiation chips and those turned fake later,” the officer added.

BJP leaders to meet Amit Shah with demand for CBI probe

The gruesome murder had spurred a war of words between the BJP and its affiliates and the ruling Trinamool Congress.

But after this arrest, the Sangh Parivar is now seen to be trying to put an end to the political battle they had started over the murder. 

Jishnu Bose, state secretary of RSS, said, “Prakash Pal was attached to us. We felt the pain of losing someone close. We demanded a speedy investigation into it. It is a shame that the police took a week to bring a logical conclusion to it. We would like to see what happens at the trial phase in the case.” 

The BJP leaders are, however, still not letting their guards down. They are still holding protests in Kolkata and Jiaganj, demanding CBI investigation into the case. A team of state BJP leaders will also be meeting Union Home Minister Amit Shah soon with their plea.

“We do not buy the theory of a labourer eliminating a family of three over some insurance papers. We demand an investigation by the CBI,” said Basu.