Three suspects in the murder of West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari’s personal assistant, Chandranath Rath, have been arrested by the State police from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. A team of the Special Investigation Team (SIT) had already headed to the two States for further investigation. The arrested have been sent to a 13-day police custody.

“The three accused were brought to West Bengal and produced before the Barasat court in North 24 Paraganas district on Monday. They were remanded to 13-day police custody,” a senior officer said. The Barasat court asked the police to produce them again on May 24, he said.

Three suspected killers were arrested by the Madhyamgram Police on May 10, 2026 after officers acted based on specific leads. The police were able to track a UPI payment made by the suspects at a toll booth near Kolkata. 

“Three suspects have so far been arrested in relation to the gruesome murder of Chandranath Rath on 6.5.26 at Madhyamgram,” an official statement from the West Bengal police said on Monday (May 11) morning. 

Based on inputs, Mayank Raj Mishra and Vicky Maurya were detained from Buxar in Bihar and the third suspect, Raj Singh was detained from Ballia in Uttar Pradesh. All three faced interrogation and were subsequently arrested by the officers of Madhyamgram Police Station. 

Cases have been registered under section 103(1) (murder), section 111(2)(a) (organised crime), section 126(2) (wrongful restraint), section 3(5) (criminal act done by a group) and section 61(1) (criminal conspiracy) of the Bharatiya Nyay Sanghita and sections 25/27 of the Arms Act for wrongful possession of arms. 

The three accused suspects were produced at the Barasat district court on Monday (May 11). The court has sent all three to 13-day police custody for further interrogation and investigation.

Police believe that there are more people involved in the murder and that this killing was the work of trained assassins who had planned the act beforehand. 

The gruesome murder which led to much political debate occurred on May 6, two days after Mr Adhikari and the Bharatiya Janta Party came to power in West Bengal for the first time with thumping majority. 

Rath was shot three times at point-blank range around 10pm on May 6, and was declared dead after reaching a nearby hospital. 

Police seized one car and one bike with fake number plates which were used during the crime. One more two-wheeler has also been seized by the police. 

In the matter, Mr. Adhikari has said that Rath, his close aide was murdered in cold blood because he was associated with Mr Adhikari. “If he was not my aide or I did not defeat [outgoing Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee] in Bhabanipur, maybe they would not have targeted Rath,” Mr Adhikari claimed. 

However, he did not directly blame the Trinamool Congress or any other leaders of the party and said that the investigation was going in the right direction. 

TMC was also quick to condemn the act on May 6 night and asked for a court-monitored CBI investigation into the crime. 

Rath’s grieving mother told reporters that this was a revenge killing because her son worked for the BJP. 

(With PTI inputs)