The arrested five in Bhaktinagar police station before they were taken to Jalpaiguri court on Monday. (Kundan Yolmo)

Siliguri, Aug. 4: A police patrol last night chased and caught a five-member gang of car-lifters and suspected murderers on Eastern Bypass after they had tried to speed past a barricade in a stolen car.

The five have allegedly confessed to murdering a driver and dumping his body in the Teesta canal earlier this year. The police are now trying to find out if they are involved in other murders as well.

Last night, too, they were travelling in a car they had stolen after drugging the driver. The patrol from the Bhaktinagar police station spotted the steel-coloured Santro on the bypass late at night as it headed towards Siliguri. When they signalled it to stop, the car sped past them.

“Sensing something foul, our men chased them and finally intercepted them near the police station,” an officer in the Bhaktinagar police station said. “There were five persons in the car and they failed to produce any document for the vehicle.”

All five were arrested and taken to the police station.

Their leader, Rajesh Agarwal, said he hailed from Kalimpong and lived in a flat in Himalaya Kanya Abasan close to the Bhaktinagar police station. The others are Santosh Khati, Agarwal’s associate from Kalimpong who stays with him, Bapi Mondal and Bikash Das, both drivers working at the New Jalpaiguri taxi stand and residents of Sahid Nagar Colony, and Mafijur Rehman, a railway hawker from Rajaholi near NJP.

“When we started interrogating them, they admitted that they had hired the car from Mirik on July 29. After coming down to the plains, they had made the driver drink fruit juice laced with sedatives. They had dropped him on the outskirts of Jalpaiguri after he fell unconscious,” the officer said.

Residents of the area found the driver, Sundar Sarki, and took him to the district hospital. Sarki came to the Bhaktinagar police station today to identify the culprits.

However, more shocking revelations awaited the police.

“During interrogation, they also admitted that they had murdered a driver and had dropped the body in the Teesta canal, where it was found later,” said Tapas Das, the additional superintendent of police of Jalpaiguri.

In end-February, the police had recovered five bodies from a 5km stretch of the canal in three days. All the bodies were found with the hands tied.

“Some of the victims were later identified as goldsmiths from the region working in north India. They had been on their way home by train with their earnings when they were killed,” said the Bhaktinagar officer.

Earlier investigations had suggested that the men were drugged on board and thrown into the canal when the train crossed it. A source said the presence of a railway hawker in Agarwal’s gang, coupled with the confession about the driver’s murder, has prompted the police to probe their involvement in these deaths.

According to the officer, Agarwal and his associates had also stolen a Spacio from NJP, a Bolero from Phansidewa and a Maruti van from Siliguri. “He (Agarwal) has confessed to selling the Bolero in Nepal for Rs 75,000.”