Prime suspect in convent attack arrested - Milan Sarkar and aide held at Sealdah railway station while attempting to sneak into Calcutta from Bangladesh

Milan Sarkar being taken to court in
Ranaghat on Friday. Pic: Abhi Ghosh

TT, Ranaghat, May 8: The CID team probing the Ranaghat rape and robbery has arrested from Sealdah station a Bangladeshi suspected to have led the gang in the March 14 attack at the convent.

Milan Sarkar, who had allegedly hidden in and around Ranaghat for three days after the incident before fleeing to Bangladesh, was arrested last night along with an aide as soon as he got down from a local train from Bangaon in North 24-Parganas.

CID officers said the other person arrested with Milan was Ohidul Islam alias Babu, who was also part of the gang that had raided the Convent of Jesus and Mary High School. The two were produced in the additional chief judicial magistrate’s court in Ranaghat today and remanded in 14 days’ CID custody. 

With Milan and Ohidul, five persons have been arrested in the case which sent shockwaves across the country and was highlighted by the Opposition as an example of the failure of law and order in the state.  

Although little is known about Ohidul, Bangladeshi police officers had in late March raided Milan’s Jessore house on the basis of information shared by Bengal police. The house was found locked.

A section of police officers in Nadia had admitted earlier that Milan managed to flee to Bangladesh because of lapses on the part of Bengal’s law enforcing agencies. Despite information that the rape and robbery were committed by a Bangladeshi group, both local police and the CID hardly took any steps to alert their “sources” in the border areas.   

CID officers today said they were looking for the other suspects — Habib, Fakir, Manik, Tuhin and Nazoor, all Bangladeshi nationals. The investigating agency had on March 26 arrested Mohammed Salim Sheikh from Mumbai and Gopal Sarkar from Habra in North 24-Parganas. Later on April 24, the CID arrested two others.

Gopal Sarkar had allegedly given shelter to the gang in his house. 

Asked about Milan and his aide, assistant public prosecutor Pradip Pramanik said: “The arrested duo were charged under Sections 376 (rape), 395 (dacoity) and 397 (robbery, or dacoity, with attempt to cause death or grievous hurt) of the IPC. To explore the conspiracy behind the heinous crime that was committed by them, the CID needed to take them into their custody for a longer period. The court has granted custody of 14 days.”

The lawyer, however, could not immediately confirm if the faces of Milan and Ohidul matched with those captured by the CCTVs in the school on the night of March 14.     

“This aspect has to be examined further,” Pramanik said.

A CID officer this evening said the agency was constantly monitoring calls made or received by Milan. “We were trying our best to nab him. Yesterday, we got a tip-off that Milan could enter India in a bid to sneak into Calcutta through Sealdah station. We were waiting for him.”

Sources said the CID had shortlisted eight youths after questioning Anita Sarkar, the wife of Gopal in whose house the convent attack was allegedly planned. Four of the eight have been arrested, the CID said.