Calcutta High Court on Wednesday rejected the bail prayer of a spurned suitor, arrested two months ago on charges of murdering his rival and friend.

The division bench of Justice Amit Talukdar and Justice S.P. Mitra refused to grant bail to Ayan Chakraborty, a student of Barasat Engineering College. Ayan had apparently fallen in love with his 21-year-old friend Suman Bose?s girlfriend Sagarika Ganguly, 19, a third-year student of Hazra Law College.

Suman, a student of Information and Technology College at Kaikhali, had introduced Ayan to Sagarika. From then, Ayan would repeatedly accost Sagarika on the roads and coerce her to accept his love.

The girl tried to fend off Ayan?s proposals by telling him that she was deeply involved with Suman. But Ayan was adamant. Soon, he decided that the only way to win over Sagarika was to remove Suman from his path. Ayan hired five goons to kill Suman.

On the evening of April 4, 2004, the six of them followed Suman on motorcycles while he was returning after dropping off Sagarika at her Barasat residence.

Ayan and his associates waylaid Suman near Chhayabani cinema, in Barasat. One of them fired and killed Suman on the spot.

Suman?s family lodged a complaint with Barasat police station. Subsequently, a case was started against Ayan and the others at Barasat court.

During the trial, Sagarika had narrated her plight to the magistrate of Barasat court about how Ayan kept proposing to her repeatedly. On her statement, Ayan and his associates were arrested.

Claiming that his client had been falsely implicated in the case, Ayan?s counsel on Wednesday told the court: ?He is a student of a reputed college. He has already spent two months in custody. He will not flee if bail is granted to him. Instead, he is ready to help in police investigate the case.

Additional public prosecutor Ashimesh Goswami opposed the bail petition and told the court: ?For the sake of Sagarika?s security, Ayan should not be released on bail.?