Husband, wife kill selves, son; kin held for abetment
Times of India | 5 March 2025
Kolkata: The bodies of a 40-year-old man, his infant son's body tied to him, and his 35-year-old wife were found hanging at their home in Kasba, south Kolkata, early on Tuesday. Autorickshaw owner Somnath Roy and his homemaker wife Sumitra had scribbled separate suicide notes on the wall, blaming his maternal uncle, who is a former Kolkata traffic police constable, and his wife — a cancer patient, who works with the police — for their deaths. Both have been arrested.
Cops think the Roys killed their son Rudranil, who was just two-and-a-half, either by throttling or poisoning him.
Pradip Ghosal and his wife Nilima have been arrested and charged with, among other things, abetting the suicides. "For our death, Pradip Ghosal and Nilima Ghosal are responsible. They took away our shelter and forced us to commit suicide," one of the suicide notes said. The other note also blames unidentified creditors.
"Nothing else was found," said joint CP (crime) Rupesh Kumar. A case has been registered at Kasba PS under BNS sections related to abetting suicide, criminal breach of trust, cheating and criminal conspiracy, Kumar added. A second case — murder, with common intent — has been started against unknown persons on a complaint lodged by Sumitra's father, Biswanath Bhowmick, Kumar said.
Pradip has protested his and Nilima's innocence. "He was like our own son," he was reported to have said.
The cops said Somnath was heavily in debt, and that the Roys and Ghosals had been involved in a spat over property tax dues.
The Roys' neighbours at Haltu's Purba Pally said Somnath had spent about Rs 5 lakh on back-to-back surgeries on Rudranil, who had severe medical complications since birth. Somnath was also trying to buy a flat in Haltu's Tarapith. This, the cops said, was the result of a bitter dispute with the Ghosals over the property in which the Roys stayed.
The Roys' home was owned by Somnath's maternal grandparents. "Somnath was born here and spent his entire life here. He was close to his uncle. It was Pradip, who arranged his marriage to Sumitra. But things changed drastically in the past two years, and we began to hear of friction between Pradip and Somnath," said neighbour Debjani Saha, who's also a distant relative.
Sumitra's family claimed property dispute was the only reason for the suicides. "I told them many times to sell the land and move away or rent a house somewhere, but they did not listen," said Sumitra's father Biswanath Bhowmick, who also claimed that Somnath's parents had left the plot to them, but that Pradip and Nilima had demanded the land be divided.
A neighbour, Shyamali Das, said she had seen creditors visiting the Roys. Neighbours said a creditor had visited Somnath at his home and threatened him on Feb 28, following which he seemed mentally stressed.
It appears Somnath had planned to clear some of his debts. Mumari Paik, who drove the auto Somnath owned, said Somanth had left Rs 2,000 in the auto's cash box. "He also paid Rs 8,000 he owed to the auto union on Monday. A few months back, he had sold off another auto," Paik said.
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