In a significant breakthrough, Kolkata police have made a fifth arrest in connection with the horrific Basanti Highway crash from December 10, which investigators now believe was a meticulously planned murder attempt targeting a crucial witness in cases against former Sandeshkhali strongman Sheikh Shahjahan.
Driver Arrested from Hideout in Minakhan
The latest individual taken into custody is Abdul Alim Molla, the alleged driver of the 16-wheeler truck that deliberately rammed into the car carrying witness Bholanath Ghosh. Police teams apprehended Alim from a hideout located in the Minakhan area within North 24 Parganas' Basirhat subdivision. Following his arrest on Monday, he was presented before the Basirhat Sub-Divisional Court, which granted the police nine days of custodial remand for further interrogation.
A Narrow Escape and a Fatal Outcome
The chilling incident, which unfolded on the Basanti Highway, was designed to look like a tragic accident but had a far more sinister motive. The primary target, Bholanath Ghosh, a key witness in the land-grab cases involving Sheikh Shahjahan, miraculously survived the high-impact collision. However, the attack claimed two innocent lives: Ghosh's younger son, Satyajit, and the family's car driver, Shahnur Alam.
Investigators probing the case have uncovered a financial angle, suspecting that the arrested truck driver, Alim, was paid a substantial sum to execute the murder. Preliminary findings suggest he received over Rs 1 lakh as "supari" (contract money) to stage the fatal crash. Police are now intensively tracing the monetary trail and digging deeper into the broader conspiracy to identify the masterminds who ordered the attack.
Unraveling the Wider Conspiracy
With Alim's arrest, the total number of individuals held in this case has risen to five. This development indicates that the law enforcement agencies are piecing together the plot step by step. The arrest of the alleged executor is a critical step, but the focus remains on uncovering the entire network behind the attempted assassination of a protected witness. The case has sent shockwaves through the legal and political circles of West Bengal, highlighting the extreme lengths to which individuals might go to obstruct justice in high-stakes investigations.
The police custody of Abdul Alim Molla will be crucial for investigators to extract details about the planning, the intermediaries involved, and the source of the funds. The outcome of this probe is being closely watched, as it has direct implications for the integrity of the ongoing investigations into the Sandeshkhali land-grab cases.
