In a shocking incident, a driver killed his elderly recruiter so that he could steal his BMW. The 71-year-old’s decomposed body was found in a house in Nagerbazar area of Bengal’s Dum Dum on September 20. Police said that upon arrest, the driver tried to paint a picture that he had merely fled with the BMW, but later he broke down and confessed.
After the deceased’ body — identified as Kalyan Bhattacharya — was found, his niece, Rajrupa Dasgupta filed a complaint with the police and a probe was launched into the matter. Later, on September 22, police arrested one Sourav Mondal, Bhattarcharya’s driver.
Kalyan Bhattacharya, who lived alone, was highly fond of his BMW and had given advertisements seeking a driver for his car, however he did not stick to one driver. Mondal had come to drive the car on September 10.
Barrackpore Deputy Commissioner (South) Ajay Prasad said, “Essentially the driver wanted the BMW for himself, so he initially requested the owner to allow him to take the car for driving. However, the owner refused.” Prasad went on to say that Mondal kept pestering Bhattacharya, following which the latter blocked him. “On the day of the murder, Mondal entered his house by scaling the boundary wall for which he was scolded by Bhattacharya. This led to the driver killing Bhattacharya and taking the BMW with him,” Prasad added.
According to sources, after killing Bhattacharya, the driver locked his house and took off to Bengal’s Digha town in the BMW with his friends.
Speaking to News18, Barrackpore Commissioner Alok Rajoria said, “Nowadays lot of senior citizens are living alone and this incident raises concerns. We need to create awareness on hiring drivers and other helps from authorised agencies.” He said that they already have programmes that reach out to senior citizens and they will further increasing it now.
Attacks on senior citizens have become an area of concern, especially on those who are living alone. Experts say that the government should bring out policy response to certify agencies as safe for providing services to senior citizens.