Jiaganj: Police slowly closes in on killer, motive

Kolkata: Even after six days have passed after the brutal murder of three persons at Jiaganj in Murshidabad, the police are still in the dark about the killer and his motive.

According to sources, on Tuesday, after the bodies of Bandhu Prakash Pal (40), his wife Beauty Pal (30) and their son Angan Pal (5) were found inside their home, police had detained several persons including Bandhu Prakash's father Amar Pal. Two more persons, identified as Souvik Banik and Swapan Behra were also detained on suspicion. After interrogation, Amar and Behra were released but Banik is still under detention.

During the probe, police came to know that Banik was very close to Bandhu Prakash and had also borrowed money from him. On Sunday, the police found certain messages sent to Banik where Bandhu Prakash requested him to give back the money. It was also mentioned that as Banik was not answering his call, he had sent the message.

Sources informed that on Monday, Beauty's father and another relative came to Jiaganj police station and spoke to the investigating officials. They reportedly informed that Banik was taking advantage of Bandhu Prakash's friendship. He kept on borrowing money from Bandhu Prakash. Because of this, Beauty was fed up and she even left her husband and went to her father with Angan approximately one-and-a-half-years back.

After a few months, Bandhu Prakash, in a conciliatory mode, promised not to continue his friendship with Banik. However, that never happened. Beauty's father also alleged that Banik was behind the murder of her daughter, son-in-law and grandson.

Apart from that, police came to know that Bandhu Prakash had collected good amount of money from several people in Sagardighi area where Amar stayed. He had promised the money-lenders to return the amount adding good sum as interest.

On the other hand on Monday, investigating officials met Banik's former wife at her residence in Bolpur. But that was of not much help. Banik's former wife stated that they were married in 2006 and got divorced in 2009.

Police sources informed that Banik has not been cooperating with the investigation. Despite several ambiguities found in his statement, Banik did not disclose how much money he had taken from Bandhu Prakash and why.