KOLKATA: The body of a 22-year-old woman—naked, wrapped in a bed sheet and covered in blood—was found at a guest house in New Town on Tuesday evening, hours after she had checked in with a male companion in the afternoon. room service executive.
Police said the mother of a four-year-old child seemed to have been strangled with the cord of a mobile charger and attacked multiple times in her belly, possibly with a broken alcohol bottle that was found lying on the floor. “We have started a murder case. We have got the name and address of the man accompanying the woman and also have a CCTV footage of him sneaking out of the hotel in the evening,” said a senior officer of Bidhannagar Commissionerate. Sources said they found a bloodstained fork and a piece of paper with a scribbling, which reportedly said the man “did not want to kill her but was forced to do so for some reason”.
Police said the woman checked in with 33-year-old Amit Ghosh at the guest house at DD Block in New Town around 1.30pm on Tuesday. They told the staff they would check out around 7pm. But when they didn’t check out till 8pm and didn’t respond to repeated calls, guest house staff opened the door with a duplicate key to find the woman lying dead.
Police have sent the body for post-mortem and started a probe to see if the woman was sexually assaulted. Cops found bloodstains in the washroom, indicating the assailant had cleaned himself. “Going by the photo ID proofs, the woman was a resident of Binpur in West Midnapore. The man’s address is Gopiballavpur in West Midnapore,” said an officer.
On contracting the woman’s family, officers said the woman lived in Howrah address with her husband and child. The husband said she had met Amit on Facebook and he had allegedly promised her a lucrative job. “A hotel staffer said he knew Amit as both of them worked at another hotel earlier. Amit had asked him to reserve a room for him on Tuesday. We are questioning the staff,” said an officer.
Guest house staff said the two had ordered paratha and chicken in their room. “They seemed like a couple. The TV was playing at a very high volume when our staff walked into the room. We called the cops. The man was nowhere to be found. The CCTV footage showed him leaving around 5.45pm,” said a guest house staff er.