Charred body opens door to a house of horror in heart of Kolkata

KOLKATA: A trail of smoke and the stench of burnt flesh brought the fire brigade and cops to an old bungalow in the heart of Kolkata on Wednesday evening. What they found over the next few hours make it look like a Hitchcock horror script — a burnt body, a skeleton of a woman surrounded by teddy bears, the bones of two dead dogs, and a 44-year-old engineer who lived with all of them.
The gory goings-on at this house on Robinson Street, off the posh Shakespeare Sarani area, wouldn’t have been detected if the patriarch, 77-year-old Arabindo De, hadn’t got tired of it all. His charred body was found in the bathroom next to a handwritten note that said: “I am leaving this world on my own...No one is to blame.” Police are yet to confirm if it was De’s handwriting.
When police arrived on the gruesome scene, they were spooked by eerie whispers and a strange chant that seemed to follow them in every room. After a few spine-chilling minutes, cops realized that the entire house was wired to surround-sound systems that played 24x7. And amid all the horror lived Partha De, a former TCS employee who once worked in the US. He had not informed police about his father’s death, and loitered in his room all night till police arrived on Thursday morning.
In Partha’s room, police found a makeshift bed piled high with teddies. They were horrified when they found a woman’s skeleton — fully clothed — under the teddies. It was Partha’s elder sister Debjani, a BTech who used to teach music in two top schools. The 47-year-old spinster died nine months ago. Rotting food — mostly pizzas and pastries — were scattered all around. Police quickly suspected Partha used to have food near the skeleton. What they found was even more shocking — Partha used to order pizza worth Rs 600 every day for Debjani and then hold planchette sessions to invite her soul for dinner.
Partha, who is now in a mental hospital, told police that he “didn’t want to let go his sister”. “I know it is a crime but people should understand my emotions,” he said. The skeletons of the family’s two Labradors were wrapped in a blanket beside the bed. Partha had even invited relatives to his house to celebrate his 44th birthday last month — they partied while the skeletons lay in the other room, say police.
Investigators say these are signs of acute depression but aren’t willing to call it an open-and-shut case. They wonder why Partha did not inform anyone of his sister’s death and why his father went along with it. He didn’t inform anyone of Arabindo’s death as well. Two guards stationed outside the bungalow were worried by the stench but he barred them from entering the house. Second, Partha’s ‘autobiographical notes’ refer to “evil eyes” on the Robinson Street bungalow. His notes say his father was not on good terms with an uncle.
When police questioned Partha about all this, he looked irritated. He is a BTech, like his father and sister. Arabindo was a director of a Bangalore-based MNC and was a member of three of the most prestigious clubs in Kolkata. Partha had a high flying job with a tech major. On questioning him, police realized that the breaking point for the family was the death of Partha’s mother from breast cancer in 2007. He quit his job to be with her in her last days. So did Debjani.
The two of them got initiated in a particular religious sect in Howrah and Debjani began ritual fasting. The second blow was the death of the two Labradors in May and August last year. Depressed, Debjani took a bizarre decision, supported by Partha. She said she couldn’t part with the carcasses and even began fasting for the dogs’ “good health”, say police. Even when the dogs turned into a bag of bones, she kept fasting. It is not known how their father reacted to this, but Partha claims he grudgingly agreed, say police.
The relentless fasting took its toll and Debjani died on December 29, 2014. Partha refused to cremate her. Police say he claims his father agreed to his suggestion because he explained that “life without his sister was not possible”. Partha and his father virtually locked themselves in after this. Every night the guards were asked to bring up Debjani’s favourite food — pizzas — to the second floor and leave it at the doorstep. Then, Partha would get on the planchette to invite his sister, he has told police.
“We were never allowed to go up except on two occasions. I smelt a foul odour but never expected anything this grotesque,” said Santanu Hazra, a security guard at the house. “Over the past year, Partha-da never came down and talked to me. He only gave me money to fetch bread and bananas. The agency that I work with had told me there was a lady in the house, but I never saw one, nor did those posted before me,” said Harendra Nath, another guard. It was the guards who called police and fire brigade at 8.30pm on Wednesday after seeing smoke from a bathroom window and smelling burning flesh.
Partha’s diaries speak of an unhappy upbringing and a property dispute between Arabindo and his brother Arun, who lives next door. But neither Arun, nor neighbours or even the tenants had a clue about the gory scene on the second floor. “Arun told us that they had visited Partha’s residence a month ago and were told Debjani was fine and spending her time in an ashram,” said DC-south Murlidhar Sharma.
Police have registered a case under IPC 269 (negligent act likely to spread a deadly infection) and 176 (withholding information), which can attract a maximum jail term of two years, but are unsure what to do next. “We have sought court permission to send Partha to a mental asylum,” said an officer of Shakespeare Sarani police station.