Woman’s body found in drain, foul play suspected

The reason being it had not become possible to evict her even two years after the building was bought to bring up a high-rise. Police said the victim Sunanda Gangapadhyay used to stay all alone in the house on Bakulbagan Road and she used to run an NGO to educate street children.

On Monday morning, one of the street children, who used to go the victim’s house to study, went to the victim’s house as usual. He knocked on the door of the room in which she used to stay. But she didn’t respond.

It led to the boy’s suspicion and he entered the room. He didn’t find anyone there and went to a corridor situated behind the room where he found the body of the woman in a drain. He rushed out crying for help and informed the local people. Policemen from Bhowanipore police station rushed to the spot and found the woman lying dead. Senior police officers including Vishal Garg, Joint Commissioner of police (Special Task Force) who is also in-charge of the Detective Department, visited the spot. He said: “It is quite clear that the victim’s death is not a natural one. All sides of the incident will be probed into. We have heard about a real estate developer who had bought the building. He will also be questioned if necessary.”

Sniffer dogs were taken to the spot to detect the crime. Forensic experts had also visited the house and collected samples. The body has been sent for an autopsy. Preliminary investigation revealed that the door of the house was open since Sunday afternoon and the boy had found it open on Monday morning as well.

It suggests that someone known to the victim could be behind the murder. Preliminary report of post-mortem suggested that there was food in her stomach. Thus police are considering that she had 

died after having Sunday night’s dinner.

Police came to know that the woman was kidnapped in 2014 and later local people had found her in a hospital for mentally challenged people. Prasanta Ghosh, a local resident, said that he along with other local people had found her in the hospital and brought her back to her house where she used to run the NGO called Chetona.

Some more families used to stay as tenant in the building that was actually owned by one Amit Dutta. Dutta had sold out the building to Himagshu Shah a few years ago.

Shah had later claimed that he had bought the building after proper discussions with all the tenants. He said that there was also an agreement with the victim’s husband to give flat. He further claimed that he had a good relation with the woman and used to respect her as she used to do social service. He often used to help her to run the NGO.

Local people told to the police that all the tenants had shifted to some other places apart from two tenants including the victim. They had also come to know from the woman that she had been receiving threats to move out of the house. She had also moved to the police in this connection.

It may be mentioned that there had been a series of incidents in which elderly people were killed in the city. On Sunday an aged pinewood trader was found with slit throat in his house at Jorasanko.