Kolkata child murder: Cops sure of insider hand

KOLKATA: A day in to the murder of three-and-a-half year old Preeti Naskar, whose dead body was found at the flat of her uncle at Mahisgote in Newtown on Wednesday, the investigators are still trying to piece together disconnected clues in the hope they will come find a strong motive behind the murder. However, two things are now certain – the little child was tortured before her death and the possibility of role of occult practices being intrinsically connected with this murder cannot be ruled out any more. The police though maintain it has to be a member within the family or extremely close to it to have planned and executed the calculated murder.The postmortem report has now indicated that the injuries on her were mostly ante-mortem. “It will mean that the little finger and index finger of the child were chopped off first before she was murdered. The injury near the eye was probably because she was hit on the head and made unconscious in order to cut her fingers. Given that the murder was carried out on Mahalaya – during Mahendrakhon and Amavasya – considered auspicious in certain occult practices hint to a “ritual related” murder, said sources. Yet, the fact that the girl was kidnapped from virtually her extended family complex and dumped at the same place suggest someone had an axe to grind against her or her parents, claimed the same officers. The child was finally asphyxiated after pushing a cloth down her throat.All through Wednesday late night up to 1 am and then yet again from Thursday morning, a joint team of Bidhannagar DD and New Town police led by commissioner Jawed Shamim, DC Kankar Prasad Barui and ADCP Shivani Tiwari questioned several persons from within the family and the neighbourhood. Among those questioned were Preeti’s uncle Shankar Naskar from whose residence the body was recovered, Kavita Naskar his uncle – the only person whose presence at her residence during commission of crime – has been proved, a brother of Kavita and a preacher and occult practitioner Sumitra Goldar from the Thakdari area nearby. Goldar though later claimed that she was merely God’s preacher and does not believe in occult practices.“Mahisgote is located barely 10 minutes away from Technopolis and is home to several employees of sector V IT hub. It is an aspirational society which is going through transition as is evident from the numerous under-construction buildings coming up in the area. The Naskars are the biggest example of this change – Shankar having made it big under the syndicate system. Yet Shankar and his elder brother Biswajit had to support Preeti’s education and had to pay to buy an auto for her father Ranajit. Given Ranajit’s weak financial condition, we are also looking in to whether the extended family was facing an economic crisis due to Ranajit’s family,” another source explained.Police sources though pointed out numerous instances when the Naskar family had taken to occult practices before to tide over family practices. “There was a theft at their residence sometime ago. Instead of coming to the police, they consulted an occult practitioner for relief,” a source pointed out.The police is now banking heavily on technical evidence to build their case. “While FSL was at the spot on Wednesday, we requested another team – this time from CFSL – to visit Shankar’s flat and search for blood stains. We believe that blood from her fingers might be found somewhere here. The CDR details of over 20 phones are being analyzed. We found Shankar was not at home when the incident took place,” claimed a source. A separate CID team from Salt Lake too visited the murder spot. The CID is expected to help Bidhannagar cops with technical evidence collection.