Durgapur murder: Sleuths recover victim's cellphone

Kolkata: Sleuths investigating the murder of a temporary woman employee of a nationalised bank have stumbled upon the victim's cellphone, at the prime accused Rajib Kumar's residence at Girjapara in Ranigunj.

The victim Shilpa Agarwal's mobile phone was deliberately kept switched off inside the apartment in an attempt to tamper the evidence. Police have also recovered the clothes of the victim, a pillow and a dupatta from Rajib's Ranigunj flat, which was raided on Thursday night. The investigators were accompanied by Rajib during the raid.

A strip of contraceptive pills was also recovered from the place, which indicate that the victim and the accused had sex before the murder. "The accused has admitted to murdering Shilpa by strangulating her with a pillow. Prima facie, it appears that Rajib was being pressurised for marrying the victim," said a senior official of Durgapur Police Commissionerate.

The sleuths have also found a deep cut on the body of the victim, but are yet to trace the weapon that inflicted it. It may be mentioned that police had recovered Shilpa's body from a suitcase, that was found lying suspiciously outside Rupali Apartment, which houses the rented flat of Rajib.

Rajib, the manager of a nationalised bank in Mejia Bankura, was having an affair with Shilpa, who used to work as "bank mitra" in the same bank.

Police are more or less sure that the prime accused's wife Manisha was very much involved in tampering the evidence.

Police are also investigating some monetary transactions between Shilpa and Rajib. Relatives of Shilpa claimed that she had given Rs 1 lakh to Rajib a few months ago, to invest in the share market.

Since both Rajib and his wife used to draw good amounts as salary, police are ruling out the possibility of any monetary dispute as the reason behind the murder.