Soumitra Nandi
Kolkata: In less than 24 hours of the murder of a businessman hailing from Thane in Maharashtra, the detective department of the city police arrested an accused from Sealdah station area on Thursday night. The body of Shailesh Shinde 41, was recovered with bullet injuries in sitting posture from a cement slab at 30, Miajan Ostagar Lane under Karaya police station area at around 4 am on Thursday.
“Md Sahanawaz 35, a resident of Miyajan Ostagar Lane has been arrested in connection with the murder. He has already confessed his crime. However, the pistol used for pumping three bullets on Shinde’s body is yet to be recovered,” said Pallab Kanti Ghosh joint commissioner of police (crime).
“Shinde who was into packaged water was not paying Rs 22 lakhs to the accused that was due. This was the motive behind the murder,” said an officer of the homicide wing of the city police.
According to police sources , the patrolling police recovered Shinde’s body and immediately sent it at National Medical College Hospital where he was declared brought dead. There were three bullet injuries in his body one on the front portion of the head and two on the chest.
Shinde had checked in at hotel Jingle Inn at Bright Street at around 4 pm on Tuesday. On Wednesday two people came to visit him at the hotel in the late afternoon. One of them identified him as Shinde’s brother. The three together had fish fry with liquor. At around 10 pm at night Shailesh left the hotel keeping his two friends inside the room.
At around 11.30 pm the two left the hotel telling that they are going on for a search of Shailesh. They returned within half an hour only to leave an hour later. They again came back within an hour. At 3.30 am in the morning they left telling that they would lodge a missing diary but never returned.
The sleuths investigating the murder scanned the CCTV footage of the hotel and grilled some of the hotel employees and came to know that one of the persons who had come to the hotel in the late afternoon was a local resident. “The CCTV footage helped in identifying the person who had identified himself as the brother of the victim. When the victim left the hotel at 10 pm in the night , there was another person who was standing outside the hotel. He accompanied Shinde. We are looking for this third person too”, said an investigating officer.
“The call details of Shinde’s mobile revealed that during his stay at the hotel and on Wednesday night there was a lot of conversation with Shahnawaz, who was Shinde’s business partner. The cell phone tracking also helped us in nabbing the assailant,” said a sleuth.
The sleuths had already informed the family members of the victim in Thane who will soon be in the city.