Suresh Chandrakar, the prime suspect in the murder of 33-year-old Chhattisgarh freelance journalist Mukesh Chandrakar, had withdrawn “a big amount” from his bank account days before the killing, a 11-member Special Investigation Team probing the case said Thursday. This is the first time that the SIT has hinted at a possible monetary angle to this case.
According to a press statement SIT issued, 42-year-old government contractor Suresh had planned to murder Mukesh, a relative, with his brothers Ritesh and Dinesh days before the actual killing on January 1. Suresh, Ritesh, Dinesh and another suspect identified as Mahendra Ramteke, a supervisor working with the main suspect, were arrested on murder charges on January 4 and 5, days after Mukesh’s body was found in a septic tank in Chhattisgarh’s Bijapur district.
Police claim that Mukesh was killed over a news report he did on the alleged corruption in some road construction projects Suresh had undertaken. Suresh had allegedly been undertaking three government projects worth Rs 150 crore – including work on a section of still under construction Nelesnar-Gangalur road.
When asked how much money had been withdrawn from Suresh’s bank account, a senior police officer said it was a subject of investigation. “Revealing the amount would hamper our investigation at this stage but money trail is being investigated,” he told The Indian Express.
According to Additional Bijapur SP Mayank Gurjar, the head of the SIT, Suresh had admitted that Mukesh’s report had upset him.
The SIT also shared details on how they cracked the murder. According to the officer, after Mukesh was reported missing on January 2, a police team tracked the journalist’s last known location through his Gmail account. This was allegedly in Chhattanpara, Bijapur, where Suresh had a 17-room property built on half an acre of land.
When he reached his Chhattanpara property, Suresh was allegedly asked to show around a police team. When they couldn’t find Mukesh there, the team began to trace his call records and found several calls had been made to Ritesh, the police said.
Investigators also began sifting through CCTVs in the area and found Ritesh driving away from the house. Meanwhile, another team tracked down Dinesh to the Bijapur district hospital.
During questioning, police allegedly found that Ritesh and Ramteke had killed Mukesh with an iron rod and thrown his body into a nearby septic tank.
This led police to track down the others, police said. The iron rod was allegedly found in a jungle near Nelasnar river in Bijapur.
“A forensic team has thoroughly inspected the place of crime and collected evidence and we have questioned 50 people. We used AI tools to collate and analyse data from 100 Call Data Records (CDR) to speed up our probe,” a SIT member told The Indian Express, adding that the police are now investigating properties that Suresh owns.
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