Woman kills husband & mom-in-law in Guwahati, disposes of chopped-up body parts

GUWAHATI: An alleged double murder of a man and his mother in the city here by the wife and her two male companions that was committed last year but unearthed by police on Sunday rocked the state on Monday. The trio have been arrested and are currently in police custody. Based on the woman, Bandana Kalita’s statement, a team of Assam Police on Sunday night recovered the chopped pieces of the man’s 62-year-old mother Sankari Dey wrapped in a blanket and a plastic sheet from a deep gorge at Alieangriat village under Sohra police station in Meghalaya.
The police team was accompanied by Bandana (31), who guided them to the exact location where she had disposed of the body parts of her mother-in-law on July 27. Police said Bandana, in her statement, said she killed Sankari at her residence at Chitraban Path on July 26. Her body was chopped into three parts. The body of 32-year-old Amarjyoti Dey has not yet been recovered.
Police said Bandana will be taken to the next location where she had dumped the chopped parts of her husband 10 days later.
Bandana in her statement to the police said he was killed on August 17 at their residence at a different location at Narengi and later his body, chopped into five parts, were disposed of near the India-Bangladesh border at Dawki in Meghalaya.
Sankari was a retired employee of Assam Power Distribution Company Limited and her son Amarjyoti was unemployed.
The case remained unresolved for more than six months as the police did not find any clue to crack it during the investigation into the missing person’s complaint filed by prime accused Bandana. Two months after the incident, a kidnapping case was also registered based on the FIR filed by Sankari’s nephew, Nirmalya Dey, after he got to know that a huge amount of cash was withdrawn from Sankari’s bank account using her ATM card by Bandana.
The murder and the attempt to mislead the police came to light after police reviewed the investigation of the missing person’s complaint and the kidnapping case after the CID instructed the city police following a request by Nirmalya to expedite the investigation into the abduction case last week.
Guwahati police commissioner Diganta Barah said the police thoroughly examined the missing complaint and the kidnapping case again and interrogated Bandana for two days last week during which police found inconsistency in her versions, which raised suspicion against her. “During the interrogation, she confessed to the crime and disclosed the names of the accomplices — Dhanti Deka (32) and Arup Deka (27).
Dhanti, who is a tourist cab driver, was arrested from Tinsukia district in upper Assam, and Arup, who is a vegetable seller, from Khanapara in Guwahati,” he added.
Police said according to Bandana, her marriage was falling apart and her husband had used to take addictive substances, which led her to take the decision to kill them both.