KOLKATA - West Bengal’s Criminal Investigation Department (CID), probing the death of a police official who initially investigated the sensational Rizwanur case, recovered his mobile phone and broken SIM card from a slum dweller Monday.

The body of Arindam Manna, posted with the Government Railway Police (GRP) at Dum Dum, was found near the Mankundu railway station. It bore injury marks on legs, hands and eyes.

‘A team of CID officials, tracing the International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI), recovered Manna’s mobile phone and broken pieces of the SIM card from a slum dweller residing near the railway tracks in-between Dum Dum and Uttar Para stations Monday,’ state Additional Director General of CID Bhupinder Singh told IANS here.

Singh said after picking up the phone from the rail tracks, the slum dweller was using it.

‘On interrogation, the slum dweller said he found the phone lying by the rail tracks. It was quite an expensive phone. Hence tempted, he took out the SIM card from the cell and broke it into three pieces. After that, he started using it with his own SIM.’

However, the CID officer refused to share his opinion on how the mobile reached the rail tracks, quite far from the place where Manna’s body was found.

‘Whether the mobile was thrown away by Manna or some other person(s), or why the slum dweller was keeping the broken pieces of the SIM for so long with him, can be told only after thorough interrogation and investigation,’ Singh said.

CID recovered the second SIM card of the mobile from Mankundu rail tracks Feb 13.

Following allegations from the relatives of Manna that he was murdered, the state government handed over the case to the CID.

Rizwanur, a 30-year-old graphic designer working with a multimedia firm, was found dead Sep 21, 2007, near the railway tracks at Kolkata’s Patipukur suburb, barely a month after his marriage with Priyanka, daughter of local industrialist Ashok Todi, who was firmly opposed to the match.

As a Hindu-Muslim love story gone horribly wrong, Rizwanur’s death had shocked the entire nation.

Todi, his brother Pradeep, brother-in-law Anil Saraogi and four city police officers - former Kolkata police deputy commissioner Ajoy Kumar, former assistant commissioner of police Sukanti Chakraborty, sub-inspector Krishnendu Das and Rizwanur’s neighbour S.M. Moinuddin alias Pappu were subsequently accused of threatening and pressurising Rizwanur to annul his marriage with Priyanka and stay away from her.

All the seven accused were later arrested but are now out on bail.