India, May 12 -- A single UPI transaction at a bustling toll plaza has emerged as the smoking gun in the high-profile political murder that has sent shockwaves through West Bengal post-polls. Investigators have cracked the murder case of Chandranath Rath, personal assistant to Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari, after tracing a fast-tag-linked digital payment allegedly made by the killers while fleeing the scene.

Three men from Bihar's Buxar district were detained on Sunday and formally arrested by the Special Investigation Team (SIT), marking a swift breakthrough in a probe that spiralled into a full-blown political thriller.

Sources close to the investigation speak of a meticulously planned hit: the assailants struck swiftly, vanished in...