Kasba: 2 persons get lifer for murder of elderly woman

Kolkata: Two murder accused were pronounced guilty and awarded with life imprisonment recently for murdering an elderly woman in Kasba during 2016.

According to police, on January 4, 2016, around 9.15 pm the deceased identified as Kamala Rajbanshi was found dead in her flat at Naskarhat area in Kasba. During the probe, cops found that the flat was ransacked and around Rs 20,000 in cash, some jewellery, silverware and other valuables were missing. During the probe, police came to know that the deceased lived with a grandchild.

The autopsy report indicated manual strangulation as the cause of death. A case of murder was registered on January 5 based on a complaint lodged by Geeta Singh, who is Kamal’s elder daughter. Meanwhile, the investigation of the case was taken over by the Homicide department of Kolkata Police. It was handed over to the Homicide Section of the Detective department. With the help of ‘source network’, a man identified as Niyaz Ahmed, a resident of Topsia Road, was arrested and Kamala’s mobile phone was recovered from him. During Ahmed’s interrogation, cops suspected that some other person was also involved in the murder about whom the arrested accused was refusing to accept involvement of any other person. Again police started cultivating the sources and finally came to know about Sunil Singh Chauhan alias Sanjay Kumar, who is the elder son-in-law of Kamala and husband of the complainant. Later, Sunil was arrested from his native place of stay in Rajasthan’s Jalore district on February 20, 2016. Also police recovered most of the stolen objects.

The chargesheet of the case was submitted on April 1. During the trial a total of 29 persons, including various family members of the deceased, doctors, several experts and police personnel, were examined in the First Fast Track Court at Alipore. On June 28, the court found the accused duo guilty of robbery and murder. Subsequently the court awarded them with life imprisonment and a fine of Rs 10,000 each.

Police in its report had mentioned that Kamal’s wealthy younger son-in-law had bought her a flat just a few months before the murder.

Since then Sunil had become convinced that his mother-in-law had also acquired a good amount of money and thus planned to murder her to get the money.