By Soumitra Nandi
Kolkata: It was greed for money that prompted the duo to commit murder of homemaker Sonia Singh who lived alone at her Baguihati flat in Kolkata on Sunday late night. The detective department of the Bidhannagar Commissionerate arrested Sudhir Mondal and Rathin mondal from Kultali in South 24 Parganas district on Thursday late night in connection with the murder.
The police had recovered the body of Sonia on Tuesday evening from the bathroom of her apartment with grievous head injury after the neighbourhood complained of a stench emanating from the apartment. The post mortem had revealed that she was hit with something heavy on her head and then strangulated to death.
A thorough study of the crime scene had revealed that the assassins were known to the victim. There was no forcible entry or any sign of ransacking in the apartment. Further investigations revealed that Sonia hailed from a village in Kultali in South 24 Parganas.
Sonia who used to perform in bars was a spendthrift. Whenever she would visit his village home she used to offer some money to poor villagers. One of the accused Sudhir being her distant relative got the idea that killing Sonia was wealthy and he would be able to make a good amount of money if he killed her.
He roped in one of his associate Rathin and came to Sonia’s apartment on Saturday evening with the plan to kill her decamp with the valuables in her house. The woman in good faith let them in and they stayed back at night after having good food. However, for some reasons they failed to have the guts to kill the lady. The next day that was Sunday Sonia left for some work in the morning and returned in the evening while the duo stayed indoors making plans of the murder.
At around 3 on Sunday late night Rathin hit Sonia’s head with a heavy wooden thing. The impact made the lady fell down on the floor from her bed. Then she was throttled with a pillow and then dragged to the bathroom. Locking the bathroom the duo started to look for money but could find a meager Rs 420 and the victim’s mobile phone. As it was dawn they locked the door of the flat from outside and escaped.
“Both of them were daily labourers they had thought of making good bucks after committing the murder. It was greed that prompted them to this,” said Kankar Prasad Barui, DC DD Bidhannagar Commissionerate.