Dey bros may be arrested, charged with murder: Police
Times of India | 22 February 2025
Kolkata: The city cops on Friday indicated that they would arrest Tangra's Dey brothers — Pranay and Prasun, who survived a car crash early Wednesday — the moment they are released from hospital. They are likely to be charged with murder.
Hospital sources said Pranay and his son, Pratip, are likely to be released Saturday morning. Doctors said they would assess Prasun's condition before deciding when to release him.
Till Thursday, the cops had managed to speak only to Pranay. On Friday, they spoke to the two other survivors — Prasun and Pratip — for about three hours, piecing together the sequence of events.
From the accounts of the three survivors and other circumstantial evidence, the cops surmise that the two brothers first considered a suicide pact on Feb 10. It was Pranay, who "reluctantly" broached the subject, citing their dire finances, which caused an "extremely humiliating condition".
The brothers have also told the cops that they had discussed the proposal with their wives — Sudeshna (Pranay's wife) and Romi (Prasun's wife) — on Feb 12, who agreed. The two minors were in the dark.
The family bought several medicines for blood pressure, along with sleeping pills. They extracted the pills and got rid of the strips to avoid suspicion. On Feb 17 (Monday), they mixed the pills with payesh (kheer). They even disguised the smell of medicine in the poisoned dessert with tulsi and other ingredients, so that the kids ate it.
Prasun and Romi retired for the night in a room. Priyamvada was in another room, studying. Pranay went to a third room with Sudeshna and Pratip.
Pranay told the cops that he woke up on Tuesday to realise all three in his room were alive, though sedated. Prasun reported that Priyamvada was frothing at the mouth. When the two saw her struggling to breathe in her room, one of them then throttled her.
After throttling Priyamvada, the brothers took a pen knife that she had been using for a school project. One of them slashed and killed the two women with it. Romi was the first victim; Sudeshna the next. The brothers claimed they tried to kill Pratip, too, with the knife but he woke up screaming in pain. The brothers then took him to the second floor, where he was holed up the entire day till midnight.
In the meantime, the brothers also put all eight mobile phones they had in flight mode after a call from a creditor, whom they reportedly warned to stay away, lying that a govt raid would occur at their home.
"The two brothers had initially planned to drive to Uluberia and crash the vehicle against a truck on the National Highway," said a police source. "However, they backtracked and, after driving for a few hours, decided to return to the Bypass. The two of them then took off their seatbelts and rammed the car into the metro pillar near Avishikta Crossing."
The brothers had locked up their house before leaving. A bunch of keys, containing 12 keys, was also found in the car. Police sources also said that a blood-smeared dark blue button was found on the car floor behind the gearbox. There were significant bloodstains on the front and back seats, as well as on the floor of the car. Police are examining the bloodstains.
On Friday, the autopsy surgeons who had carried out the three postmortems visited the Dey residence in Tangra. "The forensic team checked the spots where bodies were recovered and blood marks in the building," said an officer.
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