Retd. professor of Kalyani varsity found dead inside home

Kolkata: A retired professor of Kalyani University was found dead inside her residence in Hooghly's Bandel with her throat slit on Thursday morning. The incident triggered tension in the locality.

Police said that Sulekha Mukherjee (65), a retired professor of history had been living at her house situated at Kajidanga area of Bandel.

The maid servant came to the house on Thursday morning when she found that the door was locked from inside.

Despite repeated knocks, the victim did not open the door. She informed the matter to the local people who in turned called up the local police station.

Police broke open the door to find that the elderly woman was lying in a pool of blood on the floor of her room with her throat slit. She also had an injury on her head. Police have recovered a knife, a pair of Gloves and a grinding stone from the room which make the investigators believe that the assailants hit the victim on her head with the grinding stone. The accused later slit her throat with the knife to ensure her death.

According to the preliminary investigation, police suspect that the miscreants might have entered into her house to loot some antique valuable items that were kept in a museum situated on the second floor of the house.

The victim had a collection of rare historical items in her museum. Police also suspect that the accused might have been familiar with the victim as the almirah where some precious antique items were stored had been opened with a key.

After staying at one of her relative's house, the victim returned home three days ago. The face of the victim was covered with a piece of cloth.

Police suspect that apart from the valuable antiques, the woman had some gold ornaments. The miscreants had information about the valuables of the house and they came to loot the valuables, the police suspect.

The victim might have been murdered as she recognised the assailants, police said.

Police said that the door of the staircase on the second floor was open and the assailants might have entered into her room through it on late Wednesday night. The police are yet to ascertain the exact cause behind her death. Police have started a detailed probe in this regard.

Additional Commissioner of Police at Chandannagar commissionarate said that police were investigating if the miscreants murdered the victim while looting valuables. All possible angles are being looked into, the officer said.

In September, a researcher died after falling from the seventh floor of the Zoological Survey of India building at New Alipore on Monday evening. Police said the deceased, 35-year-old Arpan Parui, was a resident of Bauria in Howrah. A police officer said that the man was found lying in a passage in front of the building.

Security personnel and others present in the office heard a loud thud and ran to the spot to find the victim's body lying in a pool of blood. There were injury marks all over his body.

Cops from New Alipore police station went to the spot and rushed him to SSKM Hospital where he was declared brought dead.

Preliminary investigation revealed that he had been working as a researcher for the past five, six days in the Zoological Survey of India. He, along with other members of his team, had been busy for the past few days in their research work. Almost every day they used to be in the office till 8 to 8.30 pm.