Goons kill 65-yr-old woman inside house for drug protest in West Bengal's Barasat

BARASAT: An elderly woman, who was living alone at her two-storey building and had raised voice against some local criminals taking drugs near her house, was brutally murdered at her house, sending shock waves in a busy Barasat neighbourhood in North 24 Parganas.

The body of the victim, Sharmistha Munshi (65), was found in a pool of blood with stab injuries all over the body inside her bedroom late on Monday night. Two almirahs were found ransacked and all the articles were lying scattered in the rooms.

Two local miscreants, against whom the elderly woman had raised her voice for taking drugs in front of her house, were on Tuesday arrested in connection with the murder and subsequent looting of the valuables from the victim's house. A Barasat court later remanded the duo to police custody for five days.

Police said that the elderly woman was stabbed repeatedly by a sharp weapon after she had tried to resist the miscreants from looting the valuables. Gold ornaments and cash worth Rs 4.5 lakh were looted from the house.

Barely a couple of hours after the recovery of her body, Barasat police cracked the case with the arrest of two local youths from a drug rehabilitation centre near Barasat.

Police said the two accused, Raju Chakraborty and Rathin Poddar alias Baltu and Manik, are locally known as drug-addicts. Cops said they got themselves admitted at the rehab centre to evade the arrest and cover up the crime.

"The duo was earlier admitted to the centre and released barely a couple of weeks ago. Primarily, we suspect that it was a pre-planned attack after the accused had come to know that the elderly woman was living alone in the house. We suspect that they stabbed her to death by a screwdriver late on Sunday night and looted the valuables. After committing the crime, the duo went straight to the Lauhati rehab centre and got themselves admitted there," said Bhaskar Mukherjee, SP, Barasat, adding that the accused have already confessed to the crime.

According to locals, the woman used to live alone at Barasat's Nawpara Kalibari after the death of her husband, a former WBSEDCL official, six months ago.

Her cousin Kaustav Chakraborty, who stays in the same area, first alerted cops. "Her son lives in Pune and daughter in Belgharia. Her daughter last spoke to her over phone around 11.45 am on Sunday. But later, she didn't get any response despite repeated calls to her mother since Monday morning. Then she contacted me on Monday evening. But my cousin (sister) didn't respond to my repeated knocking at the main door of the house that was locked from inside. Later, we noticed the rear door was broken and found her lying in a pool of blood at the house," said Chakraborty.

He added that the road adjacent to his sister's house has become a den of criminals. "A group of local youths used to take drugs and consume alcohol in public. My sister had dared to raise her voice against them following which she had to pay with her live," he added.