Chandranath Rath, 41, had moved into his Madhyamgram flat about four years ago but led such a low-key life that neighbours never found out he was Suvendu Adhikari’s personal assistant until Wednesday night, when he was assassinated inside an SUV.
He rarely spoke to anyone, nor did he or his family participate in community programmes, neighbours and a gardener at Orchard Estate, the residential complex in Doharia off Jessore Road where Rath lived, said.
He was shot dead inside a Mahindra Scorpio barely 200 metres from Orchard Estate.
Local people said Rath lived with his wife and son on the first floor of Block 13, one of the 15 blocks at the complex where more are being built.
Several residents of the area said they would see Rath come out of the complex every morning in an SUV, with a board on the dashboard proclaiming “West Bengal Legislative Assembly”, but
they had no clue he was Suvendu’s PA.
“No one saw Suvendu Adhikari or any other BJP leader visit him. So, we didn’t know who he was,” said Prabir Chowdhury, a Doharia resident.
“We knew nothing about him except that he lived with his wife and son, whom we rarely saw,” said Khokon Adhikari, a gardener at Orchard Estate.
“Residents of the complex organise a Durga Puja every year but Rath and his family never participated.”
Khokon added: “He had been living here for around four years. I have heard that he initially took the apartment on rent and later bought it.”
Some local people said Rath’s mother used to live in nearby Michael Nagar, which was probably why he took the apartment.
Orchard Estate is located in Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Road in Doharia, between Madhyamgram and the airport, in North 24-Parganas. The 700-metre stretch has several big residential complexes and small manufacturing units.
“We saw the SUV with the West Bengal Legislative Assembly board come and go every day,” Amit Shaw, who lives in the neighbourhood, said. “We saw Rath go out every morning and return between 9.30pm and 10pm. The SUV would drop him and leave.”
Shaw said Rath spoke to no one.
“I remember waving at him when his SUV rolled out of the complex on the day of Shivaratri in February. The car slowed down and Rath rolled down the windowpane,” Shaw said.
Local people had organised Shivaratri at a temple just outside Orchard Estate.
Shaw asked Rath if he would attend the puja. “While returning home, he got off the car, prayed and paid ₹501 as donation. That was his only public appearance as far as I can recall,” he said.
Several local people said they saw Rath’s wife run out of Orchard Estate and make towards the crime scene on Wednesday night.
“We asked the security personnel whether it was Rath who had been shot. They first said he had already returned. Then they, too, started running towards the spot,” a neighbourhood resident said.
Rath, who had managed all the back-office work for Suvendu this Bengal election, was “soft spoken”, “dependable” and “meticulous”, people who knew him recalled on Thursday.
He had studied at the Rahara Ramakrishna Mission, about 25km north from the heart of Calcutta, and had earlier worked in the air force — it could not be ascertained in what capacity.