Officials are examining the mobile phones seized from the flat, the police said (Representational)
The Special Task Force (STF) of the West Bengal Police has launched a search operation for the person who took a flat on rent in Kolkata's New Town area and allowed two gangsters from Punjab - who were killed in an encounter Wednesday - to stay there.
It has been found that the two men, who were carrying bounties on their heads, came to Kolkata last month from Madhya Pradesh's Gwalior in a high-end SUV with Bengal a registration number, an officer of the state STF said Thursday.
The police have identified the owner of the flat, where the two men were shot dead by the STF. He is a resident of central Kolkata's Entally area, the officer said.
Preliminary investigations revealed that the person got the phone number of the flat owner from a website, used "fake documents" to get it on rent and allowed Jaipal Singh Bhullar and Jaspreet Singh to stay there, he said.
Bhullar and Singh, who were wanted in a number of murder and robbery cases in Punjab, were staying in the flat inside a large housing complex since May 22.
When the police reached the address given in the rental documents used by the person to get the flat, they found that it is a dilapidated shop in Kolkata which has been shut for a long time.
"Efforts are on to find that missing link between the flat owner and the two gangsters," the officer said.
The STF has also found that the SUV used by the two to come to Kolkata from Gwalior was primarily registered in the name of a resident of the city, who had sold it to someone years ago.
Of the weapons recovered from the flat by the police after the encounter, some were made in Pakistan. The two were also allegedly involved in an inter-state arms racket.
The STF officials are examining the six mobile phones seized from the flat, the officer stated.
Investigators also spoke to the local people, residents of the housing complex, and delivery boys who had delivered food to them.
Post-mortem examination of the bodies of Bhullar and Sing was done on Thursday, he added.
Meanwhile, the health condition of the policeman who was injured in Wednesday's shootout is stable, police sources said.