Elderly couple killed in Buddha Colony

PATNA

: A retired executive engineer of energy department and his wife were found murdered inside their residence at

Buddha Colony

late Thursday night.

Both Harendra Prasad Singh and Swapna Dasgupta were found lying on the floor of their bedroom. They were rushed to a nearby hospital where doctors declared them brought dead. Both had injury marks on their neck, face and head. While Singh was in his late 80s, the woman was around 76 years.

The couple was living with four servants at their B-6 house in the poultry farm lane. Locals said Singh used to run a poultry farm there several years ago. There are at least 54 tenants besides a boys’ hostel and several shops on the premises owned by Singh. Police suspect the assailants were known to the deceased.

Kalpana Jha, who has been a tenant there for the last eight years, told TOI that she came to know that they were murdered only through newspaper on Friday morning. “We all were under impression that both died due to old age. Neither any suspicious activity was observed nor we heard any sound. Both were lying on the floor when we went to see them upstairs. They were rushed to hospital,” she said.

“Both were very gentle and the four servants had been living with them for more than two decades,” she said. “Dasgupta was Singh’s second wife. Their son is a doctor in Delhi while daughter lives in Australia,” she said.

“Singh’s estranged wife lives at Kankarbagh and has two sons and two daughters, all married,” Kalpana said, adding four servants — Shohaib, his wife Gulshan Ara, Bahadur and his wife Geeta — also lived inside the premises.

Meanwhile, a student Sanjeed Ashraf, who also lives there, said he last spotted the couple going upstairs with Shohaib at around 7.30pm on Thursday. “The owner had some injury in his leg and had gone to a doctor for treatment,” he said.

DSP (law and order) Manoj Kumar Sudhanshu said Singh had injury marks on right side of his head while his wife had injury marks on her neck and face. “All the four servants were quizzed. Police have got some clues,” he added.