Four days after ex-teacher’s death, son surrenders to cops
Times of India | 31 March 2025
123 Kolkata: Evading arrest for three days, Abhishek Maitra, the son of a 72-year-old former Nava Nalanda school teacher — whose charred body was found at their rented home in Baghajatin's Vidyasagar Colony on Wednesday — surrendered in Patuli police station on Sunday.
Cops froze his bank accounts and traced his call details after he called a relative for money, prompting him to surrender, police said.
Abhishek (32) reportedly confessed before the police to suffocating his mother, Malabika Maitra, to death with a pillow before setting the home on fire on Wednesday. A post-mortem report also hinted at the same as Abhishek became the prime suspect in the case.
"He confessed to committing the murder and claimed he was under immense financial and mental stress after losing several lakhs in share trade. He was dependent on his mother's savings, who didn't give him the amount he wanted, which might have prompted him to kill her and make it look like an accidental death in a fire," said a senior officer of Kolkata Police.
While Abhishek's prolonged absence already made cops suspicious about his involvement in Maitra's death, the fact that a pillow was found lying on the elderly woman's face, that the house was locked from outside, and another finding that Abhishek changed his mobile phone SIM around the time of the incident made him the prime suspect.
Investigations also found that the private bank where he claimed to work denied his association with them. It was also found that he transferred Rs 9.5 lakh recently from his mother's account.
"We traced his activities and got CCTV footage where he was found roaming near Layelka pond. We also froze his bank accounts. He had no money and called relatives for financial help. A relative may have influenced him to surrender. Had he not surrendered, we would have arrested him anyway," said a senior officer.
On Wednesday, Maitras' neighbours noticed smoke coming out of the house around 12.30 pm and broke the window after finding the door locked from outside, thinking there were people trapped inside. When they went in, they found the woman's body, the lower half badly burnt, with a pillow pressed against her face.
Police would produce Abhishek before a city court on Monday.
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