Mamata orders CID probe into murder of two school students

Kolkata: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday ordered a probe by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) into the twin murders of school students Atanu De and Abhishek Naskar.

The state police have arrested four persons in connection with the killing of the two students, who were abducted from Baguihati-Kestopur on the northern outskirts of Kolkata 15 days back. Their bodies were recovered from Basirhat in North 24 Parganas district a few days back.

The arrested persons have been identified as Avijit Basu, Shamim Ali, Sahil Molla and Dipendra Bose, while another accused, Satyendra Chowdhury, is still absconding.

It is learnt that the Chief Minister summoned DGP Manoj Malviya on Wednesday and asked him to initiate a CID probe into the matter. She also asked the DGP to take action against the police officials who neglected the matter.

Soon after that, Malviya issued an order for a CID probe. However, the victims' family members claimed that they do not have any faith in the CID probe and instead they want the CBI to investigate the matter.

Meanwhile, state minister Firhad Hakim admitted that there had been negligence on the part of the Baguiati police station which delayed registration of the case by two days after the victims' families informed the police.

Hakim said the inspector in-charge of Baguiati police station, Kallol Ghosh, has been suspended for the time being.

"We admit that the Baguiati police station authorities should have been more proactive in the matter," Hakim said.

The two school students had gone missing on August 22. However, despite being informed on the same day, cops at the Baguiati police station registered the FIR only on August 24.

A few days after their abduction, the bodies of Atanu De and Abhishek Naskar were found in Basirhat. Initially, the bodies were kept at the local mortuary as unclaimed bodies.

Although the local police alerted all the police stations of the state about the unclaimed bodies, the Baguiati police did not react even after that.

The family members of the victims alleged that although they informed the local police about the ransom letter they received, the police did not take the matter seriously.