BLO held in WB: Youth lured over voter roll papers, murdered, and chopped into pieces

Baduria (West Bengal): A chilling murder has rocked West Bengal’s North 24 Parganas district, where a 36-year-old man was allegedly lured under the guise of electoral roll documentation, killed, dismembered, and his remains dumped in a canal.

Police have arrested a Booth Level Officer (BLO), identified as Rizwan Hasan Mandal alias Montu, along with another accused, Sagar Gain, in connection with the gruesome crime.

Investigators said portions of the victim’s body were recovered late Friday night following sustained interrogation and search operations. The victim’s head, however, remains missing.

The deceased, Nasir Ali (36), a resident of Papila in Baduria, had been reported missing since the evening of February 9.

According to family members, Nasir received a phone call from an individual posing as an Assistant Returning Officer (ARO), instructing him to urgently meet the local BLO with photocopies of his Aadhaar and voter identity cards, purportedly for Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls.

Trusting the request, Nasir left home that evening but never returned. When repeated attempts to reach him failed, and his phone remained switched off, the family lodged a missing persons complaint at the Baduria police station.

In a disturbing turn, Nasir’s motorcycle and shoes were recovered from a canal in the Chatra area the following day, intensifying fears of foul play. As suspicion mounted, police detained Rizwan Hasan Mandal, the BLO attached to booth number 22 in Papila, along with Sagar Gain.

Both accused were produced before the Basirhat Sub-Divisional Court, which remanded them to five days of police custody. During interrogation, police teams conducted extensive searches under bridges and along canals in the Baduria region.

These operations led to the recovery of dismembered body parts, packed in three separate bags, from a canal. Officials said the motive behind the brutal killing is yet to be established, while efforts continue to locate the missing remains and piece together the sequence of events.

Nasir’s wife, Beauty Khatun Bibi, told reporters that her husband had no known enemies. “Rizwan was a friend of my husband. I cannot understand why something so horrific happened. I want the strictest punishment,” she said. Police confirmed that the investigation is ongoing.