KOLKATA: West Bengal police have booked 2 more persons from Jharkhand in connection with the killing  of coal trader and BJP leader Raju Jha at Shaktigarh in East Burdwan district.

The two suspects have been named as Indrajit Giri and Lalbabu Kumar and were detained on Monday by members of the Special Investigation Team (SIT) looking into the March 1 murder of Raju Jha, according to district superintendent of police Kamanasish Sen.

The two were taken into custody in Ranchi from a leased residence. They appeared before an East Burdwan district court, which ordered them to remain in police custody for ten days.

The main accusation against Giri and Kumar is that they were in charge of setting up the automobile in which Raju Jha's killers came and fled the crime scene after firing close-range shots at Jha.

On April 19, the police had already detained Panagarh, West Burdwan district resident Avijit Mondal. A second coal broker named Narayan Khagra, who was formerly a close confidant of Jha, used to use Mondal as his driver. Khagra has filed a petition with the Calcutta High Court, asserting that Mondal has no criminal history and casting doubt on the actions of the investigating authorities.

Jha was shot and killed on NH-19 close to the Shaktigarh network of candy stores called "Langcha Hub." While riding in an SUV with him, his associate Brotin Bandopadhyay was attacked and hurt.

Jha was detained by the police in Raniganj in July 2011, some months after the Trinamool Congress took office in West Bengal for the first time, but he was eventually freed on bail. He has been detained several times since then.

In conjunction with the Enforcement Directorate's probe into the multi-billion dollar coal smuggling scheme in West Bengal, he was also questioned by the agency.

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