Kolkata (IANS) | Calcutta High Court Justice Rajasekhar Mantha on Wednesday ordered a CBI probe into the April 1 murder of coal baron and BJP leader Raju Jha at Shaktigarh in East Burdwan district. Justice Mantha also directed the CBI to complete the investigation within four months. Justice Mantha has also directed the West Bengal Police to immediately hand over all the documents related to the case, including the case diary, to the authorities of the central agency.
It may be noted that Jha was to appear at the Enforcement Directorate (ED) office in New Delhi on April 3 this year for the purpose of questioning in connection with the multi-crore coal smuggling scam in West Bengal.
On 1 April, when he was coming to Kolkata from his native place at Dugarpur in West Burdwan, he stopped at Saktigarh’s sweets place for refreshment. There, unknown miscreants shot him at close range. His colleague Bratin Mukhopadhyay, who was traveling with him, also suffered injuries.
It was later learned that the car in which Jha was traveling that day belonged to Abdul Latif, an accused in a multi-crore cattle smuggling case in West Bengal. A special investigation team of the police started probing the case and also arrested three persons.
It was revealed that Jha has a criminal history. According to police records from the closing years of the previous Left Front rule in West Bengal prior to 2011, Jha’s name figured in a police report after he was involved in a cycle-theft racket in the coalfields of Raniganj area of the erstwhile Burdwan district.
As per police records, the deceased coal baron had joined the illegal smuggling coal transportation racket long back. As he started earning well from that illegal business, he gradually started diversifying his business areas into Volvo bus service and hotel businesses. All these developments took place between 2004 and 2011, the last few years of Left Front rule.
In July 2011, a few months after the Trinamool Congress began rule in West Bengal, the police arrested Jha in Raniganj. Even after this, he got caught by the police several times.
Jha joined the BJP ahead of the 2021 West Bengal assembly elections and was seen in several campaign events of the party for the elections.
–IANS
