Guwahati: The Assam police on Monday arrested six persons, including the girlfriend of the victim, her second lover and two of his accomplices, and her parents, from state capital Guwahati, for plotting and allegedly killing a 27-year-old man in the heart of the city earlier this month. In a press conference held by Guwahati Police Commissioner (CP) Diganta Barah, the details of the murder mystery were unfolded. According to Barah, a firing incident took place in the city’s Khanapara area at around 8.10 pm on October 12, in which one man, Anjan Nath, was shot at by an unknown assailant.
The police soon found the victim with gunshot wounds on his chest at the scene of the crime and immediately rushed him to a nearby private hospital. However, the victim succumbed to his bullet injuries after a short while.
“After the incident, an First Information Report (FIR) was lodged by the victim’s elder brother at the city’s Basistha police station, based on which the Basistha police registered a case under sections 120(B) (criminal conspiracy) and 302 (murder) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), read with section 25 (1)(A) and 27 (1)(A) of the Arms Act,” CP Barah said.
“A special team comprising personnel from the East Guwahati Police District (EGPD) and crime branch, led by the Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP), Basistha, was soon formed to investigate the case. The team explored all possible angles looking for clues in connection with those involved in the crime. While carrying out extensive technical analysis, the special team of police finally zeroed in on a few suspects and rounded them for interrogation. After marathon interrogation, the accused confessed to their involvement in the crime,” CP Barah added.
CP Barah said that one of the accused, Gitashree Sinha (29), was previously married twice and has a six-year-old child from her second marriage. Gitashree got separated from her second husband too and was staying with her parents in Guwahati during which, she met her childhood friend Anjan Nath and developed a relationship and both of them started living together. However, Gitashree’s parents were not happy with their daughter’s relationship with Nath. While Nath was working as a mechanic at a motor vehicle dealership, Gitashree was working in a massage parlour.
“Meanwhile, Saurabh Goenka, who is the prime accused in the murder case, developed a relationship with Gitashree while visiting her parlour. Over time, their relationship deepened and they decided to get married. They even took approval from the parents of Gitashree to which they agreed. However, Nath posed an obstacle to their relationship. As Gitashree’s parents were not happy with their daughter’s relationship with Nath, they initially tried to separate them by using black magic with the help of Goenka,” CP Barah said.
“Having failed in all such efforts, Gitashree’s parents impressed upon Goenka to eliminate Nath to which he agreed. Goenka then with one of his friends, Govind Ray, went to latter’s home district Samastipur in Bihar and bought one country-made pistol for Rs 55,000. Having procured the weapon, Goenka, Govind Ray and another accomplice Arbind Ray, carried out recce of the route and places in which Nath regularly used to visit. Goenka kept Gitashree abreast of all the developments and she had been actively participating with him in the plot to eliminate Nath. During investigation, it came to light that Gitashree parallelly used a separate mobile phone handset along with a separate SIM to be in touch with Goenka,” CP Barah said.
“On the day of the murder, Goenka at first exchanged his scooter with his friend’s motorcycle and started tracking the route of Nath with the help of Gitashree. Meanwhile, Gitashree kept in touch with both the victim and the murderer using separate phone numbers. As per information provided by Gitashree, Goenka then went to Nath’s workplace and was waiting for him to come out. When Nath came out of his workplace, Goenka started following him and as soon as Nath reached the Khanapara area, Goenka stopped Nath and fired at him from a point-blank range and soon fled from the scene and threw the pistol in a river,” Barah further stated.
After committing the crime, Goenka informed Gitashri and her parents that he had eliminated Nath.
Besides arresting the accused, Saurabh Goenka, Gitashree Sinha, her parents Jharna Sinha and Ajit Sinha, all residents of Guwahati, Govind Ray a resident of Bihar’s Samastipur district, and Arbind Ray, hailing from Bihar’s Vaishali district, the police have seized the motorcycle used in the crime, an empty cartridge and six mobile phone handsets.
Meanwhile, police on Tuesday launched an extensive search operation to recover the weapon used in the crime. A team of the State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) has been pressed into service to recover the weapon from the river where Goenka disposed it. However, the weapon is yet to be recovered despite continuous efforts.