Six held in Tripura after 28-yr-old’s body found in freezer; love triangle suspected

Agartala, June 12: Tripura Police have solved the mystery surrounding the disappearance of a 28-year-old man whose body was discovered stuffed inside a commercial freezer nearly 112 kilometres from his home. The motive behind the brutal crime, police say, was a deadly love triangle.

Police have arrested six people in connection with the murder. The main accused, Dr Dibakar Saha (28), is believed to have planned the crime.

Others arrested include Jaydip Das (20), Nabanita Das (25), and Animesh Yadav (21), who allegedly helped carry out the murder and hide the body. Dr Saha’s parents, Dipak Saha (52) and Debika Saha (48), were also held for reportedly helping to cover up the crime.

Shariful Islam, a resident of Agartala, had gone missing on the night of June 8. After three days of frantic searching by his family, police found his body on June 11, hidden in a freezer at a shop in Gandatwisa (formerly Gandacherra) in Dhalai district. The shop is owned by the father of the main accused.

West Tripura Superintendent of Police (SP) Kiran Kumar confirmed that the murder stemmed from a romantic rivalry involving Shariful, Dr Dibakar Saha (28)—the prime accused—and a woman from Agartala’s Chandrapur locality. Shariful had recently ended a relationship with the woman, while Dr Saha had just begun dating her.

“Dibakar Saha saw Shariful as a threat to his love life and decided to eliminate him,” SP Kumar said.

According to investigators, Shariful was lured to a house in South Indranagar on the pretext of receiving a gift.

There, he was strangled to death by Dr Saha with the help of two accomplices—Animesh Yadav and Nabanita Das. The body was then stuffed into a large trolley bag and transported to Gandatwisa the next morning.

In an attempt to delay decomposition and conceal evidence, the body was hidden in a commercial freezer used for storing ice cream, owned by Dr Saha’s father, Dipak Saha. The police said further investigation is underway and more details would be revealed in the coming time.