Triple murder in Agartala office

- Employees of local vernacular daily die after two assailants go on 15-minute stabbing spree

OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

Agartala, May 19: Suspected contract killers stabbed to death three employees of a local vernacular daily on its office premises in the heart of this town around 3 this afternoon and escaped the crime scene with ease.

Though a sniffer dog was set after them about an hour later, it lost the scent at a petrol pump around 275 metres from the office of the newspaper, Ganadoot Patrika, located at Palace Compound, close to Ujjayanta Palace, home of Tripura's royal family, and just half a km from West Agartala police station.

Police are so far clueless about the identity of the killers or their motive.

The three victims have been identified as the newspaper's manager, Ranjit Chowdhury, 58, proof reader Sujit Bhattacharjee, 30, and driver Balaram Ghosh, 41.

It is, however, suspected, given the sequence of events, that the actual target of the killers was the newspaper's proprietor-cum-editor, Sushil Chowdhury, 73.

The newspaper premises comprise a three-storey building, which Chowdhury owns. The newspaper occupies the ground floor and second floors of the building while Chowdhury lives with his wife on the first floor. The couple are the only occupants of their home as their two daughters were married off several years ago.

According to the police, the newspaper or its owners had not received any threat prior to today's attack.

About 20 people work in the office, though at the time of the attack, no reporter or editorial desk person was present. Around five persons are believed to have been in the office at that time.

According to Chowdhury, he had left his office chamber for his personal flat on the first floor of the building to take a nap around 2pm. "Around 3 in the afternoon, the killers stormed my office chamber on the ground floor. When they didn't find me there, they asked someone where I was. When this person (who has not been identified by Chowdhury or the police yet) told them that I was in my first floor apartment, they rushed up and found the manager, who resembled me in appearance. They immediately attacked him and stabbed him repeatedly. Then they rushed downstairs. On their way down they came face-to-face with the proof-reader, who was rushing up hearing Ranjit's screams. They stabbed him five times on the chest, throat and abdomen. Sujit's screams brought the driver running. He, too, was attacked by the killers, who then made good their escape before Balaram's family members or I could reach the spot," Chowdhury told reporters later.

The mayhem lasted 15 minutes.

The driver, Balaram Ghosh, lived in two rooms on the office premises with his wife and 10-year-old daughter. He was declared dead after being admitted to G.B. Hospital in a critical condition.

The newspaper does not have a proper security or reception desk, which made it easier for the killers to enter the premises. One of the killers is believed to have waited below on the bike while the other carried out the attacks in the building.

Eyewitnesses said they saw two men in their late twenties in blood-stained shirts fleeing the spot on a motorcycle. They rode southward towards the city's Jagannath temple about 100 metres away, they said.

Shortly after the incident, inspector-general of police (law and order) B.K. Roy, superintendent of police (West) Bijay Nag and officer-in-charge of West Agartala police station Sanjay Biswas reached the spot and took statements from Chowdhury and other employees before deploying the sniffer dog.

Speaking to reporters, Nag said there was no clue regarding the triple murder yet. "Though no progress has been made in the investigation, it appears that the editor-cum-proprietor of the newspaper himself may have been the actual target," Nag said.

He said over the years, Chowdhury had been a "very aggressive editor who never minced words" and it was quite possible that "he had personal enemies".

"The incident occurred at a time when there were not many employees in the newspaper office. So, there is hardly any eyewitness except the slain driver Balaram Ghosh's wife Niyoti, 41, and his 10-year-old daughter Papiya, who saw two T-shirt and jeans-clad youths rushing out after stabbing Balaram," Nag said.

Following today's attacks, the police have set up a temporary post at the office. "The post will eventually be removed and the newspaper will have to fend for itself," a source said.

A host of political leaders from both the ruling and Opposition parties visited the newspaper office after the incident.

The CPM state secretariat member and senior party leader Gautam Das, Congress MLA Asish Saha and leader of the Opposition Ratanlal Nath, district magistrate (West) Kiran Gittye and sub-divisional officer (Sadar) Manik Lal Das visited the newspaper office and spoke to the owner and employees.

During the past three decades, Tripura has witnessed a series of what are believed to be political killings.

Among the victims were five CPM and Congress legislators and a cabinet minister, Bimal Sinha, who was shot dead in broad daylight in 1998 while negotiating the release of his kidnapped brother with rebels of the banned NLFT.

Today's incident, however, comes as a first, with no such attack on a newspaper office being reported in the past.

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