Suicide or murder? That’s what the Kolkata Police are now investigating after a bizarre sequence of events that started with a car crash culminated in the discovery of three bodies in a multi-storeyed apartment building.
On February 19, a car with three men – Pranay Dey, 44, brother Prasun Dey, 42, and Prasun’s minor son — crashed into a pillar near Abhishikta More on Kolkata’s EM Bypass. During questioning, Pranay allegedly made a startling confession: that they had intentionally crashed the car in a “suicide attempt” and that his family members – his wife and teenage daughter and his sister-in-law — had already killed themselves.
“On Wednesday, around 9 am, Tangra Police Station received information that an accident victim, Pranay Dey, had informed the police that three female bodies were lying in the three-storeyed house,” Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime) Rupesh Kumar said at a press conference he held in the evening.
A police team that was dispatched immediately to a building in the Tangra neighbourhood of east Kolkata discovered the bodies of two women – Pranay’s 44-year-old wife Romi Dey and Prasun’s 39-year-old wife Sudeshna Dey – and Pranay’s minor daughter, all in separate rooms in a flat on the first floor. JCP Kumar said there were bloodstains in the flat.
According to the police, no suicide note was found at the house.
While Sudeshna and Romi Dey both had cuts on their throats and wrists, the minor appeared to have bruises, minor nasal and lips injuries and was “frothing in the mouth” when she was found, a Kolkata Police officer said. While their bodies have been sent for post mortem, the two men and the child in the car were admitted to Kolkata’s Ruby General Hospital for treatment.
According to the police, the Deys own a leather-manufacturing unit that employs 200 people and live in a “well-furnished” three-storeyed building in Tangra. However, the family was in debt, with a cheque of Rs 23 lakh that they issued recently bouncing.
Initial police investigations appear to suggest multiple suicide attempts by the victims, with police sources claiming that the family had first unsuccessfully tried to kill themselves on February 17 by lacing their payas (rice pudding) with poison.
“They then changed their plan, resulting in clean-cut injuries,” an official told The Indian Express.
A police source who is part of the investigation said the nature of injuries suggests that “the victims were not fully conscious or aware when they were inflicted with the injuries, indicating foul play rather than self-harm”.
“This points towards murder, where the victims were incapacitated before the fatal injuries were inflicted,” the source said.
Sources also claim that while the accidents occurred at 3 am, CCTV images from the area shows a car, presumably belonging to the family, leaving the house at 12:51 am, with the hours in between “still unaccounted for”.
On Wednesday evening, on a complaint by Romi’s father Swapan Kumar Banerjee, police registered a murder case under section 103 (1) the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS).
Kolkata Police Commissioner Manoj Verma said the cause of death was yet to be determined, and that investigators were reviewing CCTV images and tracing the victims’ mobile phone locations to reconstruct their movements.
“The postmortem and viscera reports of the three found dead are awaited,” he said.
The police investigation now hinges on why Pranay and Prasun, accompanied by Prasun’s son, had chosen to drive away.
JCP Kumar said Prasun, who was driving the car, had an injury on his wrist. “In their statements to the police, the men claimed that before they crashed the car into the pillar, they had attempted suicide at home,” Kumar said at the press conference.
Commissioner Verma said, “It’s difficult for us to confirm whether the men went with the car with the intention of committing suicide or if they had killed the women. We have some facts with us and we need to corroborate it with the statements that the injured are giving.”