Blade, blood and a locked shutter: What happened inside Kolkata parlour; new chilling details pour out

KOLKATA: The beauty parlour owner who was hacked to death inside the salon at Mahamayatala near Garia on Tuesday, appears to have attempted to ward off the assailant with a blade before he managed to turn it on her and inflict fatal injuries. The assailant, a man from Haryana, thereafter turned the blade on himself, made a cut in his throat, and bled to death. Both bodies were found in the parlour on Tuesday.

Cops said the fact that a blade from the parlour was used for the murder and suicide indicated that perhaps the killing wasn't premeditated.

Police said parlour owner Rupbani Das (50) had multiple slash wounds on her body and had bled to death. Blood spatters all over the parlour indicated a violent struggle. Cops suspect that Rupbani may have picked up a blade from the parlour to ward off Rohtak resident Pankaj Nath (44), whom she met on social media a couple of years ago.

Sources said there were a couple of blade wounds on Pankaj, indicating that she possibly slashed at him before he managed to overpower her, grab the blade, and strike her, leading to gashes that caused her death. He then slashed his own throat. Even while attempting suicide, he tried to reach for the parlour shutter he had pulled down but was unable to. He was found in a pool of blood, lying against the shutter. An employee of the parlour who was turned out by Pankaj heard a heated exchange between the two.

Police are also trying to find out if Rupbani told her husband Anup that she feared Pankaj as the former had started dropping her off at the parlour. For the 15 years that Rupbani has been operating the parlour, she has been travelling to and fro on her own. It was recently, after she returned from Haryana, that Anup had been dropping her off.

Sources said that after the initial social media friendship between Rupbani and Pankaj, they developed a relationship. According to investigators, Pankaj was besotted and came to visit her in Kolkata some time ago. He then urged her to travel to Rohtak, where, he allegedly said her business would flourish and she could earn up to Rs 1 lakh a month. It isn't clear if it was the lure of money or an affair that led to her travelling to Rohtak with him. But what is clear is that after a couple of months, the relationship turn sour and she returned to Kolkata.