Businessman beaten to death over Puja subscription

HOWRAH: A businessman died on Sunday after being allegedly thrashed for refusing to yield to a local club’s demand for Rs 1,000 as Kali Puja subscription at Howrah’s Nischinda on Sunday. Police have arrested two club members accused of murdering the building material supplier.
Around 10.30am on Sunday, two youths of the Junior Boys’ Club at Nidchinda’s Paschim Santinagar knocked on the door of Dulal Sen, 63, and asked for Rs 1,000 as subscription.The victim’s son, Ratan, 30, said, “My father flatly refused to pay up as we have to pay to many other Kali Puja organisers. But my father agreed to pay Rs 100. The youths, Krishna Dasgupta and Subrata Dey, then threatened my father, saying they would ransack our house, shut our business and evict us from the locality if we protest.
“When my father stuck to his ground, they raised their demand to Rs 5,000. My father refused again. They then started beating up my father severely. My father started bleeding profusely from his forehead.”
The attacker fled when neighbours rushed in on hearing Sen’s screams. Sen was taken to the Belur State General Hospital and later shifted to a nursing home in Uttarpara. He succumbed there at 10pm.
On Monday, Ratan lodged a complaint at Nischinda police station, naming Dey and Dasgupta as accused. “We arrested both the accused from a hideout on Monday afternoon. They have been charged with murder, beating, extortion and damage to property,” said JA Kidwai, DC (north), Howrah City Police.