Lawyer murdered, Bar council calls cease-work

The apartment, on whose top floor Kishore Chanda was murdered
on Monday. Pic: Biplab Basak

TT, Jalpaiguri, Nov. 23: A criminal lawyer was stabbed to death inside his flat this morning, prompting the state Bar council to call a cease-work across Bengal tomorrow to seek the arrest of the culprits and protection of advocates.

Police and CID are looking for a youth who is suspected to have killed Kishore Chanda. They seized a blood-smeared weapon from Chanda's flat at Station Road. Chanda, 45, used to practise at courts in Jalpaiguri and stayed alone in his flat on the top floor of the three-storied apartment.

Chanda was found with blood oozing out of the body by his law clerk Vivek Dey Sarkar. "I had gone to his flat around 10am. I saw an unknown youth walking down the stairs. I had no clue that he might be the murderer. As I entered the flat, I found him (Chanda) lying on the floor in his chamber and blood was oozing from the body."

The lawyer was taken to the district hospital where doctors declared him dead.

Chanda was the vice-president of Jalpaiguri district legal cell of Trinamul. His wife Dola and daughter Srija stay in a flat at Hakimpara, Siliguri, 45km from here. Lawyers and family members of the deceased gathered at the hospital. Srija, Chanda's daughter, lost consciousness and was admitted to the hospital.

A CID team, led by deputy superintendent Gautam Ghosal, went to the flat. "We have come to know that the lawyer came out of his home today. He had a chat with some local residents, which was his practice, read newspaper and gone back to his flat around 9am. The lawyer was slashed in the neck and stabbed in the front," said a CID source.

The investigators collected samples from the flat. They found a blood-soaked dagger and seized it."We suspect the killer was known to the victim as there is evidence that both of them had tea in the flat," said the source.

The investigators found two tea cups, one of which was broken probably during a struggle in Chanda's chamber.

Police and CID sources said the local people had also seen a youth walking out of the apartment and heading towards the railway station nearby. A trader told the investigators that he had seen a youth, wearing a white jacket with blood marks, hurriedly walking along the road.

"The businessman has said he thought that the youth had suffered injuries for some reason and offered to take him to the hospital. However, the youth did not stop and walked away," said a police officer.

In the afternoon, the police brought sniffer dog Teesta to the crime spot. They let Teesta smell the suspected murder weapon and soon, it headed towards the Station Road and then moved to Jalpaiguri-Siliguri bus stand at Kadamtala, a kilometre away from the spot, via No 3 railway level-crossing. It stopped at the local bus stand.

The investigators are clueless about the motive behind the murder. "The murder can be the fallout of an old enmity. There are chances that the murder is linked to a case which the lawyer had handled," said a CID officer.

Akash Magharia, the superintendent of police, Jalpaiguri, said: "Police and CID are investigating the case. Our officers are speaking to some people, including the victim's law clerk and driver, to collect more details."

Asit Baran Basu, the chairman of the state Bar council, who was in Jalpaiguri today, announced a cease-work by lawyers across Bengal tomorrow. "We demand immediate arrest of all those involved in the murder and want police and administration to ensure security of lawyers," he said.