Vishal Maru Telegraph picture

Two friends of Debanjan Das, 20, have been arrested in connection with his murder on Saturday.

First, Barrackpore police arrested a youth named Vishal Maru, who was one of the youths with whom Debanjan and his woman friend had partied at a night club in Salt Lake Sector V hours before the incident. Later in the evening, the police zeroed in on the prima accused — Prince Singh — from a relative’s house in Budge Budge.

The accused, both residents of North 24-Parganas have been charged with murder and criminal conspiracy.

Officers of Barrackpore police commissionerate have found CCTV footages near Birati where Vishal and Prince were seen in a scooter. Prince had been missing since then.

Debanjan was found dead in his car that had rammed into a lamp post in Birati, where he had gone to drop his woman friend after partying on Navami night. He had taken two bullets — one in his neck and the other in his elbow — before he had died in his car.

“Both the accused youths had partied at the same night club where the victim and his friends also went. All of them left separately. Debanjan left with his girlfriend. According to her statement, Debanjan received a call from Vishal asking for help and he went to meet his friend. We suspect it was a ploy to bring Debanjan to a deserted stretch to murder him,” said a Barrackpore commissionerate officer.

Although the police had initially termed the case as one of road accident, Debanjan’s father Arun Das was the first to spot a bullet head in the car and raise an alarm that his son had been killed. It took the police 10 days to start a murder case and that too after the post-mortem report revealed twin bullet injuries as the cause of Debanjan’s death. The family also lodged an official complaint after that.

Arun had lodged specific complaints against Prince, Vishal, Debanjan’s girlfriend and a few other of his friends.

The police said they would examine all the youths who were present at the Navami night party at the night club in Salt Lake Sector V.

A senior officer said after recording the statement of a number of Debanjan’s friends it was clear that there was a larger conspiracy to kill him.

“However, who were involved and how it was executed needs to be confirmed from the statement of the accused who were in custody now,” the officer said.

The police said it was too early to rule out the possibility of the girl’s involvement.

Investigators have learnt that Prince, whose cellphone had been switched off since the incident, had first taken shelter at Vishal’s home and then fled to a relative’s home in Budge Budge. Initially his family members had claimed ignorance, but later they had cooperated with the police to find Prince.