Police on Sunday arrested truck cleaner Golam Hussain Molla in connection with alleged conspiracy to stage an accident aimed at killing Bholanath Ghosh, a key witness in multiple CBI cases against former Trinamool strongman Sheikh Shahjahan.
The accident killed Ghosh’s son and his driver seated in a car with him on December 10 on the Basanti Highway. Ghosh escaped with injuries.
With this, the number of arrests in the case has risen to three, even though none held so far was named in the FIR lodged by Ghosh with Nazat police.
On Saturday, the police arrested Ruhul Kuddus Sheikh and Trinamool’s suspended zilla parishad member Uttam Sardar.
In his complaint, Ghosh accused eight persons, including jailed Shahjahan. Seven, including prime suspect Alim Molla, the driver of the truck involved in the December 10 crash, are traceless.
Police said Golam, a close aide of Shahjahan and the cleaner of the truck that rammed into Ghosh’s car, emerged as a suspect during the probe.
An officer said: “Golam was not named in the FIR, but we found his involvement in the incident.”
Golam was charged with murder and criminal conspiracy and produced in the court of the additional chief judicial magistrate in Basirhat, which remanded him to eight days in police custody.
Investigators said that while Alim Molla, the truck driver, remains absconding, Golam’s arrest was significant. A police officer said: “We are hopeful of a breakthrough and expect to uncover details of the alleged conspiracy to stage the accident to kill the complainant as stated in the FIR.”
On December 10 morning, an empty cargo truck suddenly crossed lanes on the Basanti Highway and rammed head-on into a car with Ghosh, his son Satyajit, and two more people, who were on way to attend the hearing of a case against Shahjahan at a court in Basirhat. Satyajit and car driver Shahanur Molla were killed on the spot.
Amid suspicion that the crash was an attempt to kill Ghosh, armed cops were deployed at his residence in Sarberia on Sunday morning.
A lawyer associated with one of the CBI cases against Sheikh Shahjahan, in which Ghosh is a key witness, said protection should have been extended much earlier so that “two precious lives could have been saved”.
The lawyer said: “As per Section 398 of the BNSS, it is mandatory for every state government to prepare and notify a witness protection scheme to shield witnesses in serious cases from threats, ensure concealment of identity, safe transport and protection from intimidation, thereby making witness safety a statutory part of India’s criminal procedure. In this case, no security was given to Ghosh despite his being a key witness in at least four CBI cases against Shahjahan”.