2 Youths of Lankapara found murdered

TT, 21 December 2018, Alipurduar: Two youths were found murdered, one at a hotel and the other in a nearby plantation, at Lankapara near the India-Bhutan border on Thursday morning.

The deceased were Niranjan Chhetri, 28, and Jetha Lama, 27, both the residents of Pagli in Lankapara under Birpara police station of Alipurduar district.

The two are suspected to have been shot from the close range, said local people.

Although police are yet to ascertain the motive behind the murders, the locals suspect the murders were the fallout of rivalry among syndicates engaged in supply of construction materials.

Sources said a birthday party had been organised at a hotel on Wednesday evening and it continued till late night.

On Thursday morning, one of the deceased was found lying on the balcony of the hotel, while another was found in a betel nut plantation nearby.

Sources said the north Bengal development department had recently sanctioned Rs 136 crore for the construction of an 18km-long road from Birpara to Lankapara. A number of bridges, culverts and causeways will also be built along the route.

"The project has led to differences among different lobbies of suppliers, who are close to many political parties. Each lobby wants to supply materials for the road project and we suspect that the incident has happened due to such rivalry," said a resident.

Manoj Tigga, the BJP MLA of Birpara, said: "Trinamul leaders are patronising some miscreants who are active in Lankapara. That is why the police could not take any step against them. The incident has happened due to rivalry between two such groups who are backed by Trinamul leaders, however, denied the allegations. "In the district, none from our party is involved in any illegal activity. I would urge the police to find those involved in the incident," said Mohan Sharma, the district Trinamul chief.

The police said they were conducting raids in the area. "We are working on some information and we are conducting raids for arrests. We are waiting for post-mortem reports to know the cause of deaths," said Sunil Yadav, SP, Alipurduar.