Selfie leads to arrests

TT, Raiganj, Aug. 21: A selfie posted on Facebook of a murder accused on the run eventually helped police arrest him.

The alleged extortionist was arrested yesterday after a selfie taken at a bar in Jalpaiguri featuring him was uploaded on the Facebook wall of a person he knew. Another person involved in the murder was picked up soon after.

Police said Bappa Sen, 40, an extortionist from Bandar in Raiganj who was part of Mission Kashmir gang, and Biswajit Sarkar, 36, had been accused of a murder on March 20.

"Ishaq Ali was found shot dead in Bandar. His family lodged an FIR with Raiganj police naming Sen and Sarkar. Sen was once with Mission Kashmir gang notorious for extortion. We learnt that the victim and the accused were civil contractors and the murder took place after they had differences over sharing profits," an investigating officer said.

After the murder, Sen and Biswas went underground.

"A special police team for Raiganj subdivision was probing the case. We went through Sen's criminal records and found that he was involved in shooting a businessman, the former inspector-in-charge of Raiganj police station, Samir Pal, and other policemen," he said.

"Recently, we located Sen and Sarkar's phones in Jalpaiguri. We also traced social media accounts of people whom Sen knew." The officer said around three days ago, Sen's photo was seen on the Facebook wall of Ghutu Chatterjee. "It was a selfie where Chatterjee and Sen were seen enjoying a drink in a bar. We detained Chatterjee and traced Sen. He was picked up from Pandapara on Saturday. Later, we arrested Sarkar from Jhaljhalia."

They were booked under Section 302 (murder) of IPC and Arms Act. Gautam Chakrabarty, inspector in-charge of Raiganj police station, said: "They have been remanded in police custody for four days."