70-year-old kills drunk son after torment

TT, Alipurduar, Sept. 11: A 70-year-old man allegedly hacked to death his drunken son in a tea garden in Kalchini last night and gave himself up before police.

Prem Bahadur Chhetry, a retired worker of Chuapara Tea Estate, was remanded in judicial custody for 14 days by a court here today.

Police and neighbours of Chhetry said 40-year-old Dilraj would come home drunk almost everyday and abuse his father. Chhetry has five other sons who are all married and stay with him at his house in the garden.

“Dilraj was a bachelor and used to roam around in the locality with a gang of miscreants. The neighbours often complained to Chhetry about the younger son, but he was helpless. Dilraj was arrested by police a number of times and Chhetry had to apologise to the neighbours many times because of his younger son’s activities,” said a neighbour.

Another resident of the Chuapara estate, 38km from here, said Dilraj had been disobedient right form childhood and wouldn’t heed his father’s advice to lead a peaceful life.

“On Sunday night, Dilraj returned home late at night in an intoxicated state and started abusing his father. Chhetry wasn’t ready to tolerate his son anymore and warned Dilraj that he wouldn’t be allowed to enter home if he got drunk again. Dilraj wouldn’t be stopped by such warnings and returned home drunk last night also. Chhetry couldn’t control himself and around 12.30am, he hit his son’s neck with a sharp chopper. Dilraj died on the spot,” said a source at the Kalchini police station.

Another source said Chhetry was so angry last night that he threatened to kill anyone who dared to come near him. “

The old man was so aggressive that none of his family members or neighbours dared to go close to him. They had to even shut doors and stay inside their rooms. After the murder, Chhetry walked for 5km and reached Kalchini police station where he narrated the entire sequence of events,” said the source.

Akash Magharia, the additional superintendent of police, Alipurduar, said after his son’s murder, Chhetry had surrendered before Kalchini police station.

“We have recovered the chopper used for the murder. Dilraj’s body was taken to the Alipurduar subdivisional hospital for a post-mortem. We produced the accused in the additional chief judicial magistrate’s court in Alipurduar and he was remanded in judicial custody for 14 days.”