Clerk & driver depose in lawyer murder case

TT, Jalpaiguri, Nov. 25:The law clerk and the driver of the slain lawyer today deposed before a judicial magistrate under Section 164 of the CrPC while police widened the ambit of the investigation with the suspicion that a second person was associated with the murder.

Kishore Chanda, a criminal lawyer who used to practise in courts in Jalpaiguri, had been found murdered inside his flat on Station Road here on Monday morning.

His law clerk Vivek Dey Sarkar and driver Tarapada Roy claimed that they had seen the suspected assailant, a youth, and the police prepared a sketch of the murderer based on their descriptions as well as those of a local trader.

"Today, both the law clerk and the driver of Chanda were taken to the judicial magistrate's court where they made confessions under Section 164 of the CrPC," said a senior police officer.

Once a submission is made under the section, a person cannot retract from it and the statement might be treated as evidence in the case. Legal experts said before recording the statement, the judge would ask the person concerned if he/she was deposing voluntarily or under duress. The deposition is recorded if it is made voluntarily.

A new twist was added to the case when the investigators recovered Chanda's cell phone from the balcony of an adjoining flat.

"The recovery of the cellphone has created doubts that somebody else was also involved in the murder. The cellphone had no SIM card. If the SIM card had been taken out, there was no need to dump it on the balcony of the neighbouring flat. There was no blood mark on the phone which means somebody else, other than the murderer, might have thrown it away. We are trying to obtain the call records of the lawyer's phone," said a source.

The police who suspect that the murder was carried out over a land dispute were proceeding with the probe on the assumption that only one person was involved in the case.

The investigators had recovered a dagger, the suspected murder weapon, from Chanda's flat on Monday. Chanda was slashed in the neck and stabbed in the front of the torso.

"We have information about the murderer and the motive. Our officers are still continuing with the investigation to obtain more details, particularly because there have been some new developments like the seizure of the lawyer's cellphone," said a police officer.

TNN, JALPAIGURI: Within 24 hours of Jalpaiguri's criminal lawyer Kishore Chanda being butchered to death, DIG C S Lepcha on Monday claimed to have identified the suspected murderer, whose sketch was also ready. 

"We have learnt about the motive as well, but will disclose it only after we arrest the accused," said Lepcha.The Bar Council vice-chairman said the suspect was the son of Chanda's client of several years. 

Chanda (45) was stabbed to death in his house at Station Para in Jalpaiguri town around 9.30 am on Monday by a suspected murder accused who, after committing the crime, reportedly walked out of his flat in his bloodied clothes and vanished into the crowded streets. 

The police have shown the picture of the suspect to Chanda's family members. The police, who raided the suspect's house on Monday night, suspected he had fled to Nepal. Though the cops did not disclose the suspect's name, the West Bengal Bar Council vice-chairman, Goutam Das, claimed he was Jyotish Pramanik, a resident of Gandhi Maidan under the Bhakti Na gar police station in Siliguri.

"The police have zeroed in on Jyotish based on Chananda's law clerk, Bibek De Sarkar, his domestic help, Mamani, his driver and the businessman who lives on the building's ground floor, who had met the suspect. We have found out that Jyotish left his home around 6.30am on Monday and has not returned ever since," said Das. Jyotish's father, Dijen, had been Chanda's client since 2008.