Murder cuffs at City Centre

TT, Calcutta, Sept. 10: An alleged highway robber and contract killer accused in a twin murder in north Bengal was arrested in front of City Centre Salt Lake this morning by a joint team of Jalpaiguri and Bidhannagar police.

Pankaj Jain, 39, who had allegedly robbed a truck loaded with rubber after killing its driver and helper, was picked up while walking along the road in front of the shopping mall.

Jain, who hails from Nagaland, was produced in Bidhannagar court, which gave the police a two-day transit remand to produce the accused in a Jalpaiguri court.

The police said Jain was a member of a gang that committed robberies on highways in north Bengal.

On September 3, the bodies of two middle-aged men who had been strangled were found beside NH31D on the outskirts of Mainaguri, Jalpaiguri.

"The truck had been abandoned near Dalkhola in North Dinajpur. The investigation revealed that some people had hired professional killers to murder the driver and his helper and steal the truck, which was ferrying rubber worth Rs 17 lakh," said Amitabha Maiti, the Jalpaiguri police chief.

Police sources said Jain and his associates had boarded the truck, murdered the driver and the helper, dumped their bodies off the highway and fled with the vehicle. They allegedly unloaded the rubber somewhere between Mainaguri and Dalkhola and abandoned the truck in Dalkhola.

"We had been tracking Jain's cellphone. On Thursday, the Jalpaiguri police found out that he was in Salt Lake. They contacted their Bidhannagar counterparts and shared Jain's number with them," an officer said.

By tracking the phone, the Salt Lake police found out early this morning that Jain was in front of City Centre and his movement suggested he was walking. Plainclothesmen arrested Jain around 6.30am.