On run for 20 years, accused held in CET student murder case

Thiruvananthapuram: Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) arrested a proclaimed offender in the abduction and murder of a College of Engineering Thiruvananthapuram student after nearly two decades on the run.CBI arrested Durga Bahadur Bhat Chetri alias Deepak from Nagpur on March 27, after the 2005 killing of Shyamal Mandal. Chetri had been absconding since the initial stages of the investigation and was later declared a proclaimed offender.According to CBI, Chetri had been living under a false identity as Suraj B Bhatt in Nagpur, where he got married and settled.The case relates to Mandal's abduction in Oct 2005. He was lured out of his hostel by persons known to him. Soon after, ransom calls were made to his father demanding Rs 20 lakh, which was later negotiated down to Rs 10 lakh and deposited in a bank account as instructed by the accused.However, the probe later revealed that Mandal was murdered shortly after being abducted. His body was recovered from the bushes near Vellar in Thiruvallam area, packed in a sack on Oct 23, 2005.CBI said Chetri had conspired with co-accused Mohammed Ali, both natives of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, to commit the crime for financial gain. Ali was arrested during the investigation and convicted in 2022.Local police initially probed the case and later handed it over to CBI in 2008 following a Kerala high court directive.Chetri will be produced before the jurisdictional court in Ernakulam.