Advanced automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) cameras, CCTV footage, alerts from toll plazas and human intelligence helped Kolkata Police and West Bengal Police nab the four accused behind the murder of Bihar-based gangster Chandan Mishra, officials of the police forces said on Tuesday (July 22, 2025).

“The four accused including the main hit man Tauseef Khan, his associate Harsh, Khan’s maternal cousin Nishu Khan, and Nishu’s medical assistant Bhim drove into Kolkata through the Vidyasagar Setu toll plaza at around 10.30 p.m. on July 17. Their phones were switched off, so we could only track them through the car’s number plate,” an officer of the West Bengal Police’s Special Task Force (STF) said. 

The officer added that through advanced ANPR cameras, the accused’s vehicle was tracked to Sukhobrishti, a housing complex in New Town in the Kolkata-adjacent Bidhannagar. Tausif and the three other accused had reached Sukhobrishti around 11.25pm on July 17, and left from there around half an hour later.

“Bihar Police had alerted us that their local contact Ehsaan is expected to assist them at Sukhobrishti. However, Ehsaan and his friends at the housing complex did not respond to Tauseef’s calls when the vehicle reached the housing. Tauseef and the others had left from there the same night, and we detained Ehsaan and four others from Sukhobrishti for interrogation,” the officer of West Bengal Police STF said.

During interrogation, Ehsaan allegedly confessed to the police that Tauseef’s accomplice from Patna, Sahil, had messaged him on July 17 notifying him that Tausif and his team had reached Kolkata, and that they were ready to be received at Sukhobrishti. However, Ehsaan reportedly did not respond to Tauseef’s calls. 

The officer further added that after the vehicle left Sukhobrishti in the wee hours of July 18, its movement was again spotted at Kolkata’s Park Street area at around 3:53 a.m., and was later seen near the Eastern Metropolitan Bypass.

“We thought they would make an attempt to flee from Kolkata because by the morning of July 18, media had started sharing that five people had been detained over the Patna murder. We alerted all toll plazas to secure the city’s exit points, and scanned the city’s hotels in the meantime,” the official said, adding that by then the Kolkata Police STF had also been alerted.

A high-ranking official of the Kolkata Police STF said on Tuesday that through analysis of intelligence, traffic cameras, and by interrogating locals of the area, the accused’s vehicle had been tracked to Anandapur near the Eastern Metropolitan Bypass on the evening of July 18.

“There was a guesthouse at Anandapur where a group of four men and one woman had checked in around half an hour after the vehicle had been parked in the area. We checked hotel CCTVs and identified Nishu Khan, who we knew was paralysed waist down from an earlier bullet injury,” the Kolkata Police STF officer said.

He added that the prime accused, Tauseef, was difficult to identify because he had allegedly undergone a complete change in appearance by then, with the help of a barber booked through an online service. The woman accompanying them was Nishu’s local contact, he said.

“We sent in teams and secured the area around the guesthouse, and shortly after, raided two rooms from where we arrested the five people. They were unarmed, and nothing significant was seized from them. Subsequently, they were arrested by Bihar Police,” the officer from Kolkata Police STF said.

Bihar-based gangster Chandan Mishra was out on parole and was shot dead in an open firing inside Paras Hospital in Patna in the morning on July 17. The ‘leader’ of the hit team, Tauseef, and three others were arrested in Kolkata on July 18 in joint operations of the Bihar Police, West Bengal Police, and Kolkata Police.