Mystery continued to swirl round the discovery of bodies of three women from the same family at their home in Kolkata, while three male members of the family sustained major injuries after dashing against a Metro Railway pillar early this morning. The accident spot is around 6 km from their house, a senior police officer said.
Early this morning, a speeding car dashed against the Metro Railway pillar on the Eastern Metropolitan Bypass. When the occupants, two brothers Prasun Dey and Pralay Dey, and a teenage son, were rescued and taken to hospital, one of the adult males revealed spine-chilling details of two women and a teenage girl lying dead in their family home.
The police reached the East Kolkata address and discovered the bodies of the two women and a teenage girl.
Police Commissioner Manoj Verma told the media that three female bodies, including that of a teenage girl, were found in separate rooms on the third floor of the four-storey house in the Tangra area. The bodies of the two adult women had their throats and wrists cut. He said the teenage girl aged around 14-15 years was found frothing at the mouth with an injury mark on the forehead.
“We have got certain clues. It is premature to conclusively say whether it was a case of murder or suicide. The body of the teenage girl did not have any major injury marks. The exact reason behind her death and the other two deaths can be ascertained only after we receive the post-mortem examination report,” the Police Commissioner said.
“Police discovered the bodies after coming to know about the deaths from the husband of one of the deceased. He was among the three injured in the car accident,” Joint Commissioner of Kolkata Police, Rupesh Kumar, told reporters after visiting the house.
The accident took place when the car collided with a metro pillar near Abhishikta crossing on EM Bypass, Kumar said.
Police were speaking to eyewitnesses to ascertain how the accident took place and were scanning CCTV footage. The eyewitnesses claimed that the car did not collide with any other vehicle and directly rammed into the pillar, Kumar said.
Police are investigating a claim by one of the three seriously injured in the car accident that the entire family planned to die by suicide together since it was facing an acute financial crisis. The Deys were involved in tannery business and lived in the locality for decades, the local KMC councillor said. Locals said that the brothers ran a company that made protective leather gloves for export to Russia, but their business had hit a rough patch following the Russia-Ukraine war.
A probe was also underway into claims by neighbours that around 10 people had visited the residence of the family twice on Tuesday and whether the deaths are linked with these developments. Neighbours said that the brothers were reeling from the burden of paying Rs 2.5 lakh every month for debts they had accumulated.
“During the preliminary investigation, we came to know that the family was having some financial problems. We are trying to ascertain whether today’s developments are linked to it,” the Police Commissioner said.