Bank manager, wife arrested on charges of murdering colleague

MIDNAPORE (WEST BENGAL): A 38-year-old branch manager of State Bank of India and his wife, also an SBI employee, have been arrested for murdering one of their woman colleagues in West Bengal’s Bankura district.

Rajiv Kumar, 38, manager of SBI’S Mejia branch, and his wife Manisha were Friday sent to police custody for 10 days by a local court following their arrest on charges of murdering Shilpa Agarwal, 28, who was posted as a customer care executive at the Mejia branch.

Rajiv was reportedly having an extramarital affair with the victim and his wife Manisha, posted at the bank’s Fujhore branch near Durgapur, was unhappy about it.

Police said Manisha was a partner in the crime and even helped Rajiv hide the body, which was found inside a trolley bag in an apartment room in Benachiti in Durgapur.

Police said Agarwal was murdered on Saturday night. A woman who did not identify herself had tipped off the police.

The couple has been charged with murder, conspiracy and tampering of evidence.

“Manisha admitted during interrogation that she smothered the victim with a pillow on Saturday night. We also found strangulation marks on the victim’s neck and there was injury on her head as well. But Manisha has not yet made any admission about these injuries. We are looking for the object with which Agarwal was hit on the head,” said Avishek Modi, deputy commissioner, Asansol- Durgapur Police Commissionerate.

On Thursday evening, police took Kumar to a rented flat in Raniganj, about 30km from Durgapur, where they found Agarwal’s clothes and her cellphone.

“Rajiv told us that Agarwal visited his flat on February 11 when his wife was away in Ranchi with her parents. He claimed to have discovered the body hanging from the ceiling in the adjacent room. He said he panicked and tried to hide the body,” the officer said. “We are surprised to see the couple so calm. They are behaving normally.”

The victim’s family had filed a ‘missing’ complaint on Tuesday. The family told mediapersons that Agarwal went to her aunt’s house in Asansol on Friday and called up on Saturday evening to say she was on her way back.