- Sariful Islam, a 24-year-old electrician, was in a relationship with a 20-year-old student.
- Dr Dibakar Saha, who had been eyeing his 20-year-old cousin sister, plotted to kill Sariful.
- On June 8, after a dispute, Dr Saha strangled Sariful with the help of accomplices and hid the body.
Sariful Islam, 24, a resident of Agartala's Indranagar who works as an electrician in Tripura capital's Smart City project, was in a relationship with a 20-year-old college student from Chandrapur neighbourhood. But they were about to break up since both belonged to different faiths.
Some seven months ago, the girl's cousin Dibakar Saha returned to Tripura from Bangladesh after completing an MBBS course and began studying for India's exam to get a medical practice licence.
Dr Saha had been eyeing his cousin initially, and both started having intimate chats on the internet, which the police have seized as evidence.
Sariful knew Dr Saha through his girlfriend. However, the doctor had plans to kill Sariful for a long time.
A few months ago, he made the first murder attempt when he called Sariful to a place which they frequented. He mixed sleeping pills in fruit juice and gave it to Sariful, who reached home before the effects of the pills kicked in. Sariful then fell ill for many days, but did not doubt Dr Saha.
Dr Saha also had another girlfriend, Nabanita Das, a postgraduate who was preparing for a teaching job. On June 8, Dr Saha invited Sariful to the house of Joydeep Das, a relative of the doctor, to accept a gift. Dr Saha also brought his girlfriend Nabanita Das and a common friend, Animesh Yadav, who is a BPharma student.
After Sariful reached Joydeb Das' house in Indranagar, he and Dr Das had an altercation over the 20-year-old woman. After that, Dr Saha strangulated him.
With the help of the others and using his medical knowledge, he put the body in plastic wrappers and tied the limbs with ropes.
Two days earlier, he had bought a huge trolley bag. He put the body inside the bag and took it to the house of Mousumi, a friend of Nabanita Das. They told Mousumi that it contained Nabanita's personal items. The police are however looking at Mousumi's role too.
The three then left Indranagar on an Uber Auto, whose driver the police have questioned.
On June 9 morning, the police received a missing person complaint from Sariful's parents, after which a search and investigation began. The same morning, Dr Saha's parents came from their hometown Gandacherra in Tripura's Dhalia district, 120 km from Agartala. They took the trolley with them and dumped it under an ice cream freezer at their grocery shop in Gandacherra and locked the place.
Dr Saha's father alone returned to Agartala the same evening. He began contacting right wing groups to turn the matter into a Hindu-Muslim couple love affairs case, police sources told NDTV.
Led by West Tripura Superintendent of Police (SP) Kiran Kumar, the police launched a massive hunt for Sariful. From his phone records, the police found he made the last call to Dr Saha.
When the police summoned him, Dr Saha behaved as if Sariful was his close friend and he was worried about the missing man. He told the police that he invited Sariful to give him a gift.
The police then put him under surveillance. The first clue was the motorcycle of Sariful, which was found parked near Joydeep Das' house. When he was questioned, he too tried to mislead the cops.
Sariful's family then told police about his relationship with a 20-year-old girl, who is a Hindu. When the police spoke to her, she said she had doubts about his cousin Dr Saha. Police took her phone and found chats that became the clinching evidence.
Despite this, Dr Saha did not admit to the crime and tried to mislead the investigation again. The police then turned their attention to Nabanita Das, Dr Saha's girlfriend.
When the police told her about Dr Saha's relationship with his 20-year-old cousin sister, Nabanita Das broke down and told the whole matter, following which the police detained her. On the night of June 9, the police detained Dr Saha, Animesh and Joydeep, and also Dr Saha's father.
On June 10, the police took Dr Saha's father to Gandacherra and in the presence of a magistrate recovered the trolley from the ice cream freezer. They found the body inside.
The police detained Dr Saha's mother too. When all the accused were cross questioned, Dr Saha admitted to the crime, the police said.
The police on June 11 did a crime scene reconstruction and in the late evening announced the case to the media.
The Tripura Police cracked the case within 24 hours of receiving a missing person complaint. They plan to take 10-day custody of the accused.
Track Latest News Live on NDTV.com and get news updates from India and around the world
