AIDE’S WIFE ALLEGES THREAT CALL 

Kharagpur, Jan. 12: Police have detained 10 persons in connection with the murders of alleged scrap iron dealer Srinu Naidu and his associate Dharma Rao at a Trinamul office in Kharagpur yesterday.

"Two of them are former aides of Srinu. All 10 have criminal antecedents," a police officer said.

Srinu was an accused in several murder and robbery cases and was out on bail.

Dharma's wife V. Rosa, who has a three-month-old daughter, said her husband had received a "threat call" on Tuesday. "He told me someone threatened to kill him," she said.

Police sources said the probe had revealed that Srinu had lately been settling land disputes by taking money from one group and intimidating the other into submission.

The police are also investigating if there was factional rivalry within Srinu's group.

An associate of Srinu, a Trinamul member, said the slain man had been staying away from Kharagpur for the past few days. "He spent most of his time in Calcutta. He used to come to Kharagpur for a few days in connection with his business. He had been targeted a few times earlier, so he had become cautious," the associate said.

Srinu's wife, Kharagpur municipality Trinamul councillor Puja Naidu, said her husband had left for Calcutta on January 6 and returned yesterday morning although he was supposed to come in the afternoon.

The police sources said Srinu had been building an air-conditioned multi-gym with a high boundary wall near the Trinamul office. "We believe he was building the gym not only for business purposes but also to create a fortress of sorts for himself," an officer said.

The chairman of the Trinamul-run Kharagpur municipality, Pradip Sarkar, said he wanted the police to probe if local MLA and state BJP president Dilip Ghosh had any role in the murders.

Ghosh alleged the murders were the fallout of "mafia gang war".