Three members of a family, including a two-and-a-half-year old boy, were found dead in their house in Kolkata’s Kasba area on Tuesday, police said.
“Bodies of three persons namely Somnath Roy (40), Sumitra Roy (35) and their toddler son Rudranil was found in their house …. in Kasba,” said Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime) Rupesh Kumar.
Roy and his wife were found hanging, while the minor’s body was found tied to his father, the officer said. The police said that the reason for taking the extreme step was scribbled on two walls of the house and blamed five persons.
An official said that two cases have been registered based on the complaints received by the deceased’s relatives and two persons have been arrested. According to police sources, Somnath Roy was an auto-rickshaw driver and the family lived in a house in the Haltu Purba Palli area, the police said.
On Tuesday, upon being informed by locals, a team from Kasba Police Station reached the spot and recovered the bodies, which were sent for postmortem examinations.
“Preliminary investigation suggests that it is a case of suicide, possibly driven by financial distress. However, we are not ruling out other possibilities. We are speaking to the deceased’s family members and neighbours. The investigation is underway,” the officer said.
While the exact motive of the death or content of wall-written suicide notes is yet to be disclosed, the investigators suspect that financial burden might have driven Somnath Roy to take the extreme step. The first FIR was registered on the complaint of Sumitra Roy’s sister, Suparna Bhowmick (29), naming Pradip Kumar Ghosh and Nilima Ghoshal, both of whom have been arrested.
A case has been registered under sections 108/3(5) (abetment of suicide), 316(2) (criminal breach of trust), 318(4) (cheating), and 61(2) (criminal conspiracy) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS).
A second complaint was filed by Sumitra’s father, Biswanath Bhowmick (55), and another FIR was registered under section 103 (1)/3(5) (murder) of the BNS, but does not name anyone.
A relative of the family alleged that Roy was having a property dispute with another family member and investigators are looking into whether the property dispute could be linked to the deaths, an official said.
The incident comes weeks after three members of a family in Kolkata’s Tangra area were found dead in their residence on February 19.