Sonagachi NGO worker murder: Arrested minor girls confess to crime

The two arrested girls, who had fled from Sonagachi, Kolkata’s red-light, on Sunday confessed to killing Kabita Roy, a senior functionary of a local NGO.

Investigators learnt that the girls in fact wished to join the sex trade there. They saw Roy – a lone crusader who worked for the NGO for the welfare of sex workers there – as a roadblock in their way.

Roy tried to take them back to their home in Bongaon of North 24 Parganas, but the girls were desperate to escape from her custody at the NGO’s office.

After killing Roy, they went to Howrah station and took the Howrah-Maldah Intercity Express planning to get down at Maldah. They had also taken Roy’s cellphone. 

During the journey, they befriended a youth, who gave them Rs 800 and took them to a hotel in New Jalpaiguri. Using Roy’s phone, the girls tried to contact a friend on Facebook, but failed. Later, they approached an auto driver in Jalpaiguri and used his phone to contact the friend.

Investigators, however, tracked Roy’s cellphone location and caught the girls from Siliguri. They were then taken to a police home and grilled.

It may be recalled that the two minor girls – whom the NGO had rescued from Bowbazar and kept under the custody of the murdered functionary – had gone missing. The blood-smeared body of Roy was found in a room in the NGO’s office.

Roy was a former president of the NGO and later working as a residential caretaker of the NGO’s office at Sonagachi.

She was found dead in her room on the second floor of the NGO’s office at 12/5 Nilmoni Mitra Street at Sonagachi a few weeks ago. A gamcha was tied around her neck and her head had been smashed in.

Other members of the NGO discovered her body when they reported for duty after the Bhai Phonta holiday.

They also discovered that Rs 750 had been robbed from the donation box of an AIDS helpline centre that the NGO runs on the ground floor of its office building.

The NGO staff had found Roy’s body around 11 am and called the police immediately. 

Police officials, who examined the body later, said that the assailants had hit the victim with a heavy object on the head. Later, they strangulated her to ensure that she died.