The Mumbai Crime Branch on Friday (22nd May) arrested three accused in connection with the West Bengal firing and blast case in the Murshidabad district of West Bengal. The accused have been identified as Shamim Ahmed Abdul Rashid (40), Jamil Akhtar Ali (43) and Aftab Anwar Khurshid Anwar (44). They have been handed over to Shibpur Police Station, Howrah, for further action.
As per reports, the accused had reportedly been absconding for over a week and were hiding in an SRA building in the Deonar area in Mumbai. They were arrested during a raid conducted by the Crime Branch’s ‘Crime Intelligence Unit’ (CIU) in the area after receiving inputs. Their arrest comes within a week of the arrest of two other accused in the same case, namely, Rocky Khan (24) and Shahadat Sarkar (35), near Borivali railway station. All three accused are residents of the Howrah district of West Bengal.
🔸 Three main accused in the West Bengal firing and blast case arrested by Mumbai Crime Branch!
— मुंबई पोलीस Mumbai Police (@MumbaiPolice) May 22, 2026
On 7th May 2026, the accused involved in the firing and blast case at Shibpur Police Station, Howrah, were arrested by the Mumbai Crime Branch, Unit 6, from Deonar. The operation led… pic.twitter.com/tlKMMelMEf
Senior police inspector of Mumbai Crime Branch’s CIU unit Bharat Ghone said that five of the accused in the case remain at large and the police are looking for them. “Based on the intelligence received by the team and through technical analysis, we were able to pinpoint their whereabouts. After receiving information that the accused were hiding inside an SRA building in the Deonar area, police laid a trap and apprehended them. West Bengal Police are currently on a lookout for the absconding prime accused involved in this case. Five persons involved in this case still remain at large,” Ghone said.
According to the police, the accused carried out a bomb blast and firing in Howrah on May 7, 2026, three days after the assembly poll results were announced. Three people were injured in the attack. After the incident, the accused went into hiding in the Manager Mohalla area of Howrah for two days before fleeing West Bengal.
According to the Crime Branch officials, the three accused boarded a train from Howrah on 9th May and reached Odisha the next day. They stayed in Odisha till 12th May before travelling to Maharashtra in a taxi. On 13th May, they reached Kalyan and later shifted to the Mohammad Ali Road area, where they stayed at a hotel for about 7 days. They kept changing locations to avoid being traced by the police.
On 20th May, the three accused moved out of the Mohammad Ali Road hotel and shifted to Deonar, where relatives of one of them lived. The accused had planned to stay in the area before leaving for Ajmer, Rajasthan, on 22nd May. However, before they could leave for Ajmer, the Crime Branch received inputs about their location and nabbed them.
