No traces of drugs were found in the dope tests of Siddhartha Das and Mugdha Das, who were arrested in connection with the killing of four members of a teacher’s family in Rangpur.

The tests were conducted eight days after the incident, when traces of drugs might no longer be detectable in urine, according to police.

Police received the test reports from Rangpur Medical College Hospital at around 2:30 pm on Monday, eight days after the killings.

Deputy commissioner of the Detective Branch of Rangpur police Sanatan Chakraborty confirmed the findings, saying the reports showed no traces of drugs in the urine samples of the two suspects.

‘According to the reports, no traces of drugs were found in their bodies,’ he said.

He said the samples were collected from the two suspects at Rangpur Central Jail on Sunday noon and taken to Rangpur Medical College Hospital for testing.

The police official said the samples were tested eight days after the incident, and traces of drugs might no longer be detectable in urine after such a long period.

‘If the tests had been conducted within two or three days, traces of drugs could have been detected,’ he said.

He added that Rangpur Medical College Hospital conducts dope tests using urine samples and does not have facilities to detect drugs through hair or blood samples.

The negative test results came after police had earlier claimed that Siddhartha and Mugdha had consumed drugs before allegedly killing the four members of the family.

The two suspects reportedly told a court in their confessional statements that they had taken eight to nine yaba tablets before the killings.

Asked whether the negative dope test contradicted the earlier police claims, the DB official said, ‘Police remained active, and the investigation is going on. Required measures will be taken in due course.’

On Sunday, a DB team, accompanied by a laboratory technologist and an assistant from Rangpur Medical College, went to Rangpur Central Jail at around 2 pm and collected urine samples from Siddhartha, 19, and Mugdha, 23.

Police said the samples were collected inside the jail for security reasons.

On August 22, police recovered the bodies of Ganapati Chakraborty, 65, a retired teacher of Rangpur Zilla School, Pritilata Chakraborty, 50, their daughter Agami Chakraborty, 25, and son Ayush Chakraborty, 12, from their home in the Machhuapara area of Rangpur city.

Ganapati’s elder brother Gopinath Chakraborty filed a murder case against unidentified assailants with Kotwali Police Station on August 23.

Police arrested Siddhartha and Mugdha – who were neighbours of the family – from the area the following day, alleging that they killed the family after Ganapati caught them taking yaba on the rooftop.

Police said they later gave confessional statements before the Rangpur Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Court under Section 164 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, before being sent to jail.