Pritam Bhattacharjee

Naugachia, July 25: Government Railway Police (GRP) suspended two officers at Naugachia railway station in connection with Pritam Bhattarcharjee murder case, while the bag the victim was carrying was recovered from Kataria, where his body was found.

The inspector-general (IG), rail, today said Pritam’s bag was recovered from Kataria, barely 200m away from where his body was found. The raids to nab pickpocket Chhottu Sahani for his suspected involvement in the murder also continued.

Amid the raids, the station house officer (SHO) of Naugachia GRP, Manish Kumar Saha, was suspended for his failure to find any clue in the murder of the Assam boy. Sub-inspector B.P. Baidik, assigned the charge of SHO of Naugachia GRP after Saha’s suspension, was suspended soon after for refusing to take up the new responsibility. The inspector-general (rail), Vinay Kumar, issued the orders.

Sources in the office of Sagun Paswan, the superintendent of railway police (SRP), Katihar, said Baidik was assigned the charge of the SHO of Naugachia GRP following an order from the rail IG. Hai Ram, the SHO of Saharsa GRP, was made the new SHO of Naugachia GRP last evening after Saha and Baidik were suspended.

While the suspension orders were being issued from the office of the rail IG, a team of GRP and Naugachia police started conducting raids to nab Chhottu, a pickpocket. His wife and five other suspected persons were detained last evening.

A GRP source said initially the police suspected Chhottu’s hand in the killing. The men in uniform are now assured that the Makhatakia village resident played “some sort of a role in the killing”.

“He was associated with petty crimes on trains for a long time and the location of Pritam’s mobile on July 10 indicated that he was near Chhottu’s house,” a source said.

Some GRP personnel associated with the murder criticised the senior officers for the suspension of their two colleagues.

“Naugachia GRP has to look after seven railway stations from Samapur to Kharik on Baruni-Kathihar section of East-Central Railways, which is a 50-km stretch. Just one SHO has to do all the work and the strength of the GRP, Naugachia, is only 26. On July 9, the day Pritam went missing from the railway station, all officers, including the SHO, went to Katihar to attend the crime meeting of the SRP. Only an assistant sub-inspector-rank officer was on duty at the station that day. Even he left the station on an escort duty much before Pritam’s train arrived there. How can an SHO be blamed for the incident?” asked a GRP officer.

Meanwhile, Z. Ahmad Khan, the deputy inspector-general (rail) who reachedNaugachia yesterday, conducted a meeting with GRP officers and the Naugachia police, responsible for the investigation of the case.