Chandernagore: "I am confused now. Someone is hiding something from me," a distraught Tanushree Chatterjee said on Wednesday, two days after her only daughter, 27-year-old Sutandra, died when the car in which she was travelling with three colleagues overturned near Panagarh.
"There are nine eyewitnesses to the incident. None is above suspicion. I expect a free, fair and transparent probe by police," Tanushree said and indicated that she would speak to Sutandra's co-passengers and the driver to "find out the truth."
On the morning of the accident on Monday, Sutandra's collegaues and driver had told reporters that a group of drunk men in a white SUV had chased their car, made lewd gestures at Sutandra and repeatedly bumped their car, leading to the accident. The police complaint filed by one of them, however, did not mention anything about teasing or harassment. By evening, police had given out a different version. Asansol-Durgapur police commissioner Sunil Kumar Choudhary called a press meet to say that CCTV footage had showed it was Sutandra's car that was chasing the white SUV.
A three-member police team led by DCP Chandernagore Alaknanda Bhowal met Tanushree on Wednesday evening and updated her on the probe and showed her the CCTV footage.
Tanushree told reporters, "In the CCTV footage I saw our car trailing the white car. Our car was going at a high speed. I want to know why it was being driven at such high speed. They could have stopped the car. Why didn't those in the car ask the driver to stop or slow own?"
She added, "At this stage, I trust no one. Let police dig out the truth. Something is being hidden. I have lost my daughter and so I am having doubts. The CCTV footage has only reinforced it."
Montu Ghosh, a Bhadreshwar local and dancer in Sutandra's event management company who was travelling with her in the car, deposed in-camera before a Durgapur magistrate on Wednesday. On Monday, he had made three different statements.
The two other co-passengers, Pradip Dutta and Mintu Mondal, were also summoned by cops for in-camera statements but only Mondal turned up at Kanksa police station late in the evening. Police also denied reports that SUV owner Bablu Yadav had been arrested. Sources said a police team was in UP on the trail of Yadav, a motor parts trader, while two of his employees were being questioned by Kanksa police.
TOI on Thursday tracked down Pradip Dutta in his home in Chandernagore Jyotir More, but he refused to speak. Dutta was Sutandra's dance teacher and business partner. His mother Rita said, "We are very poor. I work as a house help. Pradip is very ill after the accident. He cannot speak now."
Sutandra's uncle, Abhishek Banerjee, who performed her last rites, said, "We have seen the CCTV footage but we have a lot of questions. We want to know the truth. There are nine witnesses. The truth should be dug out."
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