Alipurduar District Police claimed to have solved within four days, the chilling murder of a private schoolteacher at Jaigaon, where his private part was chopped off and inserted in his mouth.
The body of the victim was discovered on the morning of November 16 in a mutilated condition.
The macabre murder of the schoolteacher created ripples in the area since he was known in the locality as an extremely peace-loving person and was associated with the welfare activities carried out by a local church.
A senior police official claimed that not only have they arrested four persons in connection with the ghastly murder but have also been able to identify the motive behind the crime.
Of the four persons arrested so far, two, namely Pandu Rai and Vijay Subba were contract killers who murdered the teacher in the horrific manner.
The other two arrested persons are Rohit Thapa and Pasang Lama, who hired the two contract killers to murder Santabir Lama.
Sources from the Alipurduar District Police said that initially from the nature of the killing and the macabre follow-up action it seemed that this was a "crime of passion," where the killer had a deep feeling of anguish against the victim.
However, as the investigation proceeded and the arrests were made, it became clear that Rohit Thapa and Pasang Lama plotted the schoolteacher's murder so that they would not have to repay the loan of Rs 1,50,000 that they took from Santabir Lama.
It is learnt that Rohit Thapa was an active leader of the Bimal Gurung-founded and led Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) and he was at a point of time the central committee member of the GJM.
Rohit Thapa had prior criminal records and he was also arrested in 2017 because of his involvement in a clash in the Dooars region.
(With inputs from IANS)
