2 suspects to undergo dope tests, questions about killings will be answered: Police

Simanto Das, a friend of Siddhartha Das and Mugdha Das, who were arrested in connection with the killings of retired Rangpur Zilla School teacher Ganapati Chakraborty, his wife and their two children, gave a statement to the court. He gave the statement to Rangpur Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Mohammad Rafiqul Islam on Tuesday night.

Jinnat Ali, inspector of the Detective Branch (DB) of Rangpur Metropolitan Police and the new investigating officer in the case, confirmed the matter.

Investigating officer Jinnat Ali said, “In the interest of a proper investigation, we applied to the court to record Simanto’s statement as a witness. He came to court with his father yesterday (Tuesday) and gave his statement. The account Simanto gave to the court exactly matches the confessional statements given by the two arrested suspects, Mugdha and Siddhartha. The two suspects said they went to Simanto’s house on the night of the incident and consumed yaba there, and Simanto gave the same account to the court.”

Earlier, at a press conference following the arrest of the two suspects on Sunday, police said Siddhartha and Mugdha had consumed drugs at Simanto’s house on the night of the killings.

Meanwhile, police have taken steps to conduct dope tests on the two arrested suspects to verify whether they were addicted to drugs.

Investigating officer Zinnat Ali said the necessary permission was obtained on Monday morning. An official application for the drug tests has already been submitted. They will be sent for the tests today, Wednesday.

Regarding various questions that have arisen on social media and among local residents over the killings, investigating officer Zinnat Ali said, “Through a proper and impartial investigation, we will find answers to every question that has arisen over these killings. Our main objective is to ensure justice is firmly established in this case.”

Gopinath Chakraborty, elder brother of the deceased Ganapati Chakraborty, filed a murder case with Rangpur Kotwali Police Station as the complainant on Sunday.

Initially, Milon Chatterjee, inspector (investigation) of Kotwali police station, was investigating the case. The investigation was handed over to the DB on Monday night.

On Saturday night, police recovered the bodies of Ganapati Chakraborty, 65, his wife Pritilata Chakraborty, 50, daughter Agami Chakraborty, 25, and son Ayush Chakraborty, 12, from their home in Machuapara of Kamal Kachna area in Rangpur city. Police said all four had been strangled to death.