Krishnanagar, March 27: A second year BA student was allegedly killed by his maternal cousin and his mother (aunt) apparently being failed to siphon money from his rich father.
The victim Sourav Kirtania, 21, was trapped in a hotel where the duo with the support another man killed him at least two days ago – much before they made a ransom call to his father demanding Rs. 30 lakh for his release.
After the preliminary investigation the sleuths claimed that the victim had came to the hotel with the suspected killers and stayed in a room jointly. “It appears that they planned to siphon money from Sourav’s father by staging a fake kidnapping drama. Sourav was also most probably part of the plot. But there might a disagreement at later stage when the trio killed him”, an investigating officer said.
Police the body of the victim, a student of Betai BR Ambedkar College with silted throat and chopped genital from inside a hotel adjacent to NH12 in Nadia’s Dhubulia during a combing operation on early hours of Saturday morning. The sleuths also recovered a knife and ropes from the hotel room, which were apparently used in the murder.
Police have arrested Akash Halder his mother Jharna Halder and her paramour Suman Das apart from the owner of the hotel, who has been accused for illegal business and harbouring crime. They will be produced before a court in Krishnagar on Sunday.
Superintendent of police of Krishnagar police district Biswajit Ghosh said, “The motive behind the murder is not quite clear. We have begun a probe and interrogating the three prime suspects that include a woman who were arrested for alleged involvement behind the incident”.
Family of the victim and the local residents, however, accused police of sheer apathy and inaction to rescue the youth. The angry villagers blocked Krishnagar road on Friday night for about an hour when the body arrived home after the autopsy. Both Trinamul and CPM supporters joined the demonstration with the villagers.
“The life of my son could be save had the police acted with little alacrity. It is unfortunate that police begun the combing operation only on Thursday night even though it tracked his location at least 48 hours ago. It was quite late as it is now clear that my son was killed much earlier. We repeatedly appeal police to search the suspected locations, but it paid little attention to our appeal”, Shymalendu Kirtania, father of the deceased youth said.
The deceased, a resident of Koruigachi village of Tehatta, had left home for Krishnagar to visit a mobile phone store on March 24. On the same evening his father received a ransom call for Rs. 30 lakhs. Tehatta Police begun a kidnapping case based on his complaint and tracked his located near Dhubulia. The Dhubulia police was appraised. But, an apparent lack of coordination cost the life of the youth, alleged family members.
Senior police officers, however, refuted the allegations of any negligence on its part. “Police begun the combing operation only after the suspected kidnapper who called for ransom switched off the mobile”, a family member of the victim said.
An officer of Dhubulia policed said that the victim and the accused persons are well known and jointly planned to stay at the hotel.
“After interrogating the hotel owner we came to know that the deceased youth had come along with his cousin Akash to book room. But it is not so far clear why Sourav told lie to his parents about his plan. This makes his role suspicious despite being killed”, a police officer said.
“It appears that the trio had killed Sourav on March 25 night and stayed there in the lodge next day also. They later made ransom call to misled the police”, the officer said.