State police enroute to Gujarat to bring ‘serial killer’ on transit remand

Kolkata: The killer of the tabla player whose body was found on the bunk of the (Down) Katihar Express in Howrah railway station on November 19 was arrested by the Gujarat Police.

Supratim Sarkar, Additional Director General (ADG), South Bengal said: “Several things are yet to be made clear. We were tracking the movement of the mobile phone’s tower location and kept alerting the Railway stations. After reaching Salem, the phone was switched off. After that, how the accused went to Gujarat from there will be clear after interrogation.” State police team is going to Gujarat to bring Rahul on transit remand soon.

The information reached the state police on Tuesday and cops learnt that the accused Rahul Jat alias Bholu of Rohtak in Haryana is a serial killer and involved in a series of crimes such as murder sexual torture, robbery and snatching.

According to the state police officials, after the body of the musician, Soumitra Chatterjee, hailing from Bally, was recovered a case was registered at the Howrah GRP. During the probe, police found that Chatterjee’s luggage and his mobile phone were missing. While tracking his mobile phone, cops found it was moving towards South India parallel to the Railway track. Checking the Railway route, cops found it is the route of Ernakulam Express which originates from Howrah Railway Station. Accordingly, the Railway stations enroute were alerted by the state police through proper channels. However, Rahul remained untraced. Meanwhile, cops found that Chatterjee’s mobile phone was switched off after the location reached Salem about three days after the murder. Cops were trying to track the mobile but failed as it remained switched off.

Meanwhile, the Superintendent of Railway Police (SRP), Howrah, Pushpa on Tuesday received a phone call from the Gujarat Police where she was told that Rahul, who was also wanted in Gujrat, confessed that he killed someone in Howrah. Later, state police officials were told by the Gujrat Police that recently Rahul had raped and murdered a 19-year-old girl at Valsad district. This apart, he had committed several murders and other crimes among which maximum are under jurisdiction of railway police. So far, state police officials learnt that Gujrat Police is considering Rahul as a serial killer who used to target the passengers of the compartment for specially-abled people. Rahul has a partially defective leg which gave him easy access to such compartments.