Scanner on rail ticket in Udayan case

ABHIJEET CHATTERJEE, TT, Bankura, Feb. 9: Police officers questioning Udayan Das have learnt that his partner Akansha Sharma had booked a railway ticket to Howrah on July 13 apparently after she called his bluff, prompting him to kill her.

"It is possible that Akansha had called Udayan's bluff after he remained silent on her repeated demands of taking her to the US to meet his parents. Akansha must have realised she had taken a wrong decision by coming to Bhopal and wanted to return to her Bankura home," said a police officer in Bankura.

Police officers have said Udayan had persuaded Akansha to come to Bhopal on the pretext of taking her to the US, where he had said his parents lived. The police have found from Udayan's Bhopal home a fake appointment letter of an international organisation addressed to Akansha.

The police came to know about the July 13 train ticket to Howrah while scanning Akansha's banking transactions.

"Udayan told us that when he came to know that Akansha was trying to return to Bankura, he became furious and planned her murder. He killed her on July 14 or 15," the officer said.

The youth is also believed to have told the police that after killing Akansha, he removed the jewellery from her body and sold them at a shop in Bhopal.

"He told us he needed money to buy construction materials and hire a mason to build the tomb under which he buried Akansha's body. Udayan sold off her jewellery for around Rs 60,000 after murdering her. He also confessed to selling off the jewellery of his mother whom he had killed earlier," the officer said.

Sources said a police team from Bankura would visit Bhopal soon to verify the information.

The police have also learnt that Udayan had visited Moscow to celebrate his birthday in 2013.

"After scanning his passport, we've learnt that Udayan had gone to Moscow alone on April 23 in 2013 to celebrate his birthday there the next day. He returned on April 26. He told us that he swindled the money from his mother's bank account by forging her signature to meet the cost of his trip," said the investigating officer.

The police said Udayan had also visited Singapore and Vietnam in 2011 and 2012.

"His first foreign trip was to Singapore in 2011 after killing his parents. He sold some ornaments of his mother for the trips. He also visited Vietnam the next year. But he never went to the US nor his parents lived there," said the police officer.

The police have found that the stamps on his passport saying he had visited the US were fake.

"The immigration stamps on his passport, which he had shown Akansha to convince her that he frequently visited the US to meet his parents, were fake. He never visited the US," said another officer interrogating Udayan.

The police have also recovered the forged appointment letter addressed to Akansha.

"Udayan had given it to her to convince her to leave Bankura on June 23 last year. Akansha, too, had shown it to her parents to get their permission to travel to the US," the officer said.