Twin murders of ladies at home

Relatives and neighbours at the deceased women’s house in Hili on Sunday. Picture by Mithun Roy

TT, Balurghat, Sept. 14: A young widow and her mother-in-law were found dead in their home, both suspectedly hit with the metal handle of a tubewell, in South Dinajpur’s Hili this morning.

The 70-year-old mother-in-law was found dead near the house tubewell. Her daughter-in-law, who was in her thirties and helped run the family’s grocery store, was found dead in a room in the house.

The younger lady’s 20-year-old son, who is being questioned, is suspected to be associated with betting syndicates, police in Hili said.

“Some of the articles from the house were missing,” Jawed Shamim, inspector-general, north Bengal, said. One of the relatives has mentioned in a police complaint that Rs 15,000 and some gold and silver jewellery was missing from the house.

Shamim said: “We are probing the robbery angle and trying to find out whether the miscreants killed the two after they faced resistance.”

The police said that barring the head injury on the two ladies, there were no other bruises.

“Her (the daughter-in-law’s) body was found in a semi-naked condition. We have asked doctors, who will conduct a post-mortem, to ascertain whether the victim was raped,” a police officer said.

The husband of the younger lady died about seven years ago.

Hili police said that after detaining the younger lady’s 20-year-old son, they found out he had lost money while betting recently.

“We have started an investigation on the basis of the complaint (filed by the relative). The motive behind the crime is not clear. Both the murders were committed with the handle of a tube well and the women were hit in the house,” said a police officer.

“We have come to know that he (the son) was involved in a betting syndicate and he had lost some money recently,” the officer said.

Hili is 25km from Balurghat town.

Neighbour Rupali Sarkar said this morning that she saw “mashima (the mother-in-law) lying on the concrete landing near their tube well. I thought she had fainted as she had high blood pressure. I called out to her. When she did not respond, I went near her and saw injury marks on her head.”

The family has a grocery shop near the police quarters in Hili and after his father Gopal Ghosh’s death, the youth used to run the stall to run the family.

His mother would help him in running the store.

The police have seized the handle of the tube well that was found near the house.

Sandip Subba, the officer in charge of Hili police station, said: “We have found two bodies in the house this morning. They were murdered with a heavy weapon, which has been seized. There were injury marks on the head of both the deceased. The bodies have been sent for post-mortems. We can comment on the cause of the deaths only after the reports reach us.”