Jamshedpur, July 11: The court compound was a picture of chaos today when a small crowd gathered around an undertrial who was being escorted out of the court by police.

The undertrial was limping. It was evident that he had been assaulted. At the insistence of the crowd, the man took off his shirt to display bruises all over his body. His arms were swollen. There were blood clot marks on his body. He had been allegedly tortured in custody.

The undertrial was identified as Tapash Ghosh, who had been acquitted by the court last month in a murder case after he had spent two years in jail. The police admitted that they made a mistake in arresting Ghosh for the murder of Akash Choudhary two years ago. But Ghosh was arrested again this week and charged with attempt to extort money from a Mango-based liquor dealer, Bablu Das. Superintendent of Police Arun Oraon claimed that Ghosh had confessed this week that he was indeed a contract killer and was involved in the murder of two other people. He was remanded in jail today. The flip-flop by the police and the alleged third degree methods used by them have raised suspicion of a frame-up.

Akash Chowdhary, a trader, was shot dead in Sankosai in Mango allegedly due to his involvement in a love affair. Though Ghosh was not named in the FIR, his name figured in the chargesheet after police investigations found him guilty. However, in June Ghosh was acquitted due to lack of evidence.

He landed again into the police net this week after the special task force of the district police arrested him, along with Sunil Sharma, on charges that they were contract killers.

Officer in-charge of Sitaramdera police station Arvind Kumar Singh had yesterday claimed that the duo was involved in at least three murder cases that were committed in the steel city. Ghosh and Sharma had allegedly killed one Lakhinder Choudhary at Bhatia Bustee in Kadma in 2000 and later murdered one Harmohan Sahu at Narga village the same year.