Durgapur: Coal mafia Rajesh alias Raju Jha was shot dead on his way to Kolkata in Shaktigarh on Saturday evening. Raju Jha, who once became the king of the illegal coal trade, was prevented from carrying out his illegal activity after the new government came to power in West Bengal in 2011. Since then, Raju Jha was arrested several times in various cases.
Later, Rajesh alias Raju Jha joined the saffron camp holding BJP leader Dilip Ghosh’s hand at Palashdiha Maidan in Durgapur while he developed a good rapport with Arjun Singh who was then in BJP. Raju was seen at various places during the BJP's campaign in the last assembly elections. He was seen on the dais at various BJP events along with central, state and local leaders of the BJP. Just a few days ago, two rounds of firing took place at Raju’s transport office in Durgapur's city centre.
After that incident, according to the information received through sources on Saturday, when Raju Jha was on his way to Kolkata in his own car, another four-wheeler came to a stop next to it at Shaktigarh. The miscreants inside that car targeted Raju Jha's car and opened fire, killing him on the spot.
Cops from Shaktigarh police station are probing the matter of who shot Raju. While going to Kolkata, Raju was accompanied by Bratin Banerjee, a resident of Andal. While their car was parked in front of a sweet shop, a car pulled up next to them from where gunshots were fired at Raju. When Bratin Banerjee tried to flee the car, he too was shot. Police rescued Bratin Banerjee and admitted him to a hospital in Burdwan.
According to sources, Raju died on the spot and Bratin Banerjee is under treatment in critical condition. Raju, who became the kingpin of the coal-black dealing syndicate during the Left Front regime, flourished financially. Rajesh aka Raju managed everything from the transport business to the hotel business in a very short span of time.
