Woman lawyer held for husband’s murder

KOLKATA: Six days after Calcutta high court lawyer Rajat Kumar Dey, 34, died under mysterious circumstances inside his home in New Town in the northern outskirts of Kolkata, police arrested his wife on Saturday night for allegedly strangling him with the charging cable of her mobile phone.

Anindita Pal Dey, 33, also a lawyer, was produced at Barasat court on Sunday morning and sent to police custody for eight days. Officers of New Town police station said that after the lawyer was killed on the night of November 25, she made self-contradictory statements for six days in an apparent bid to mislead investigators.

The couple has a two-year-old son. They lived in an apartment.

Rajat Kumar Dey’s body was found on the floor of the bedroom. His face had turned blue and there was a deep mark on the throat. His wife initially told police that he fell from the bed and had a heart attack. Avvaru Ravindranath, deputy commissioner (detective department) of Bidhannagar City Police, said the accused broke down during interrogation on Saturday night and made her confession. “The contradictions in her statement became apparent after autopsy report confirmed that Dey’s death was caused by strangulation,” Ravindranath said. Police suspects that an extra- marital affair might have led to the murder. The couple often fought over phone calls that Anindita Pal Dey used to make. In fact on the night of the murder, she allegedly wanted to be alone in the bedroom and the couple quarrelled over this. “Both the accused and the victim chatted with people on social media before the murder. We have checked call and chat histories in their phones. Anindita received a call hours after the murder. We are focusing on this caller,” said an investigating officer on condition of anonymity. It may be noted that, in May last year, a similar gruesome murder rocked Bengal when one Manua Majumdar scripted her husband’s murder with the help of her boyfriend.

Majumdar who persuaded her boyfriend to kill her husband also made sure that she listened to the victim’s painful screams through a mobile phone.