The crackle of gunfire and the roar of motorcycles drew several residents of Doharia, a neighbourhood off Jessore Road in Madhyamgram, to their balconies on Wednesday night.
They saw an SUV parked in the middle of the road with its front doors flung open and a crowd gathered around it. At first, they did not realise that Chandranath Rath, personal assistant to BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari, had been shot dead and his driver injured.
“It was around 10pm. After rain, the road was nearly deserted. Suddenly, we heard some muffled sounds followed by speeding bikes. I ran to the balcony and saw someone had been shot inside an SUV,” said Prabir Chowdhury, a resident of Shivoha Gardenia, a residential complex near the spot.
“Initially, we could not understand what had happened. I went to the gate with a few others and heard that Suvendu’s PA had been shot dead,” Chowdhury said on Thursday.
After the rain, the concrete stretch connecting Jessore Road in the west with Rajarhat and Baduria in the east was partly deserted on Wednesday night. A few residents returning home stopped near the SUV and realised the deceased was a resident of Orchard Estate, another housing complex in Doharia. Rath had been living at Orchard Estate for around four years, but several residents said they did not know who he.
“I was returning with my daughter on a two-wheeler when I saw the man in the car. There was blood everywhere. A man seated in the rear seat was calling others to inform them about the attack,” said Amit Shaw, a local resident. “We could not believe assassins would choose this road.”
Others who reached along with police informed guards at Orchard Estate that a resident had been shot. Within minutes, more locals gathered.
Orchard Estate, where Rath lived, lies at the end of Sheikh Mujibar Road in Doharia, an area still under development. Other gated complexes nearby are smaller, with a mix of residents from Bengal and other states.
“We have never witnessed any crime on this road in recent times. The old para is gone. Most residents of housing complexes keep to themselves. But there has never been any heated exchange or skirmish,” said Arpita Das Chowdhury, a homemaker in one of the complexes.
When Arpita moved from her parental home in Beleghata to Doharia after marriage around five years ago, the area had small manufacturing units and large stretches of vacant land lined with mango and jackfruit trees behind boundary walls.
The trees remain, but much of the land has since been developed.
“I keep visiting my son in Gujarat, and this area never felt insecure. My daughter-in-law has returned late at night on several occasions without any issue,” said another resident who did not wish to be named. “What happened on Wednesday night is terrifying,” he added.
Sheikh Mujibur Road, lined with shops on both sides, is lit by street lights, but CCTV coverage remains patchy.
One camera installed at the entrance of Shivoha Gardenia covered only the gates, while just one of three cameras installed by a pharmaceutical company captured usable footage, which the police have collected. The footage shows Rath’s SUV entering at 10:08:50pm and a two-wheeler leaving with two helmeted riders at 10:09:40pm.
“In 2016, a clash between two groups saw two syndicate leaders, Bubai and Ram, shot at a spot ahead of where Rath was killed,” said Kokhon Adhikari, a gardener at Orchard Estate. “After a decade, it feels scary again.”