Student murder slur

TT, Jalpaiguri, Oct. 7: An engineering student who had gone out of his house here last night with four of his friends was found dead after a purported accident, but his family members alleged in a police complaint that he might have been murdered in a pre-planned manner.

Kotwali police today detained the four friends of Tanmoy Chakraborty, 24, a resident of ward 22 of Jalpaiguri municipality. Tanmoy was a second-year student of a private engineering college in Bangalore and had come home on holiday for Durga Puja.

The family members of the deceased said Tanmoy had gone out around 10.30pm yesterday with four friends who had come on two motorbikes.

“His parents were not at home. When his father returned around 11pm and realised that Tanmoy was not at home, he called up his son on cell phone. Tanmoy said he would return soon,” said Tapan Bhattacharya, Tanmoy’s uncle.

Around 12.30am, one of Tanmoy’s friends rang up his parents to inform that he had fallen from a motorcycle and had been taken to Jalpaiguri district hospital.

“We rushed to the hospital and came to know that Tanmoy had already died. There were multiple injuries on his back, limbs and head, which have left us suspecting that he was murdered,” said Bhattacharya.

All the four friends of Tanmoy claimed that he had suffered serious injuries as he had fallen from one of the motorcycles which were passing through a new bridge over the Karala river near Gosala More.

The family members of Tanmoy said it was unlikely that anybody would suffer such serious injuries even if he fell from a moving motorbike.

Tanmoy’s four friends are residents of Jalpaiguri.

Ashish Roy, the inspector-in-charge of Kotwali police station, said: “We are waiting for post-mortem report. All the four youths who were with the deceased yesterday night have been detained for interrogation.”