CID captures murder accused by tapping wife's phone

CID sources said Mangal Sahani, an undertrial and the prime accused in the January 13 murder of 78-year-old retired schoolteacher Renuka Sarkar at Santiniketan, was captured from Chennai Central rail station on Saturday.

When he was produced before the Burdwan chief judicial magistrate Yasmin Ahmed's court here today, she remanded him to six days' CID custody.

The sleuths got Sahani's mobile number by tapping his wife's phone.

Sahani told interrogators that after escaping from Burdwan Medical College Hospital on October 15, he took his wife and daughter from his in-laws' place and subsequently fled to Chennai, the sources said.

He brought his wife and daughter back after hearing his mother's illness. The CID intercepted the wife's mobile and came to know that he was in Chennai.

The sleuths had also learnt that Sahani's family members would return to Chennai as his mother was now well, the sources said.

CID personnel followed them to the southern metropolis in train and captured Sahani from Chennai Central station where he had come to receive his wife and daughter.

Sahani, who had been working in a false name in a construction company in Chennai, allegedly killed the woman during a burglary attempt.

Two other persons had been arrested in the case.