Suicide pact, smothered child: Role of family member, three others under scanner
Telegraph | 6 March 2025
The preliminary post-mortem of Somnath Roy and his family revealed that he and his wife Sumitra committed suicide while their two-and-a-half-year-old son was smothered to death.
The couple was found hanging at their Kasba home on Tuesday. The child was in a sling hanging from Somnath’s neck.
Apart from the arrest of Somnath’s maternal uncle Pradip Ghoshal and his wife Nilima, police are also scanning the role of another relative, Gouri Ghoshal, and three others — Pranab Bhowmik, Subhra Mondal and Chanchal Mukhopadhyay — who are named in an FIR lodged based on the complaint by Sumitra’s family.
All of them are accused of cheating the family in a property-related matter.
Pradip and his wife were produced before court on Wednesday and sent to police remand till March 12.
The police submitted the names of the other accused persons before the court and said their alleged involvement was being probed.
Somnath and his wife were found hanging from the ceiling, while their son Rudranil’s body was found hanging around his father’s neck with the help of a sling.
“According to the verbal post-mortem opinion, there was abrasion over the root and bridge of nose and bruises over lower and upper lip. Death of the child was because of the effects of asphyxia (smothering),” said joint commissioner (crime) of Kolkata Police, Rupesh Kumar.
The couple’s death was because of “suicidal hanging”, Kumar said.
The couple had left two notes in which the names mentioned in the FIR were found.
According to the preliminary investigation, Pradip and Nilima would allegedly pressurise the family to share the property he got from his father. Gouri is also under the scanner for the same alleged offence.
The other three names mentioned in the FIR — Pranab Bhowmik, Subhra Mondal and Chanchal Mukhopadhyay — allegedly cheated the couple over a property-related matter, the deceased had alleged through their purported suicide notes.
The police said the family was under a financial crisis and was allegedly finding it difficult to repay a loan of around ₹5 lakh.
“We have learned that Somnath sold one of his two autorickshaws for the treatment of his child. He was facing financial problems,” said an officer of Kasba police station.
The police said they would examine the role of the others.
The lawyer of the Ghoshal couple, who were produced before the court on Wednesday, denied charges of abetment to suicide.
The lawyer said that the Roy family was suffering from depression.
The prosecution lawyer, however, objected to the submission and said the custody of the Ghosal couple was needed to “unearth the truth” and to complete the investigation.
The court sent them in police remand till March 12.