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Published : 11 May 2026, 11:23 AM
At least three people have been arrested in the murder of Chandranath Rath, the personal assistant of West Bengal's new Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari.
In a joint operation by the West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar police, the three men identified as Vishal Srivastava, Raj Singh and Mayank Mishra have been arrested in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, NDTV reports.
The arrests were made possible after police tracked a UPI transaction made by the assailants at a toll booth in Bally near Kolkata.
Rath was on his way home when he was shot dead at point-blank range on Wednesday night, between 10 and 10:10pm.
He was seated in the front passenger seat of his SUV, a Mahindra Scorpio, and was less than 200m away from his home in Madhyamgram, North 24 Parganas.
The initial investigation has revealed that Rath's SUV was blocked by a silver-coloured Nissan Micra following which bike-borne assailants shot him.
The killers then abandoned the Micra and used another red car and a bike to flee.
Police scanned CCTV footage and tracked the car, which was seen making a payment at the toll plaza. All three arrestees were seated in the same car and had paid at a toll booth using UPI. This served as the crucial link that led police to Rath's killers.
Police say the three arrestees are professional killers and have roots in Buxar, Bihar.
Vishal is said to have over 15 criminal cases against him, including murder and robbery.
The three men will be produced in the Barasat court in West Bengal on Monday.
