‘Tortured’ mother dead

Krishnagar, July 4: Fifty-year-old Basanti Sadhukha set herself ablaze last night, apparently fed up with the torture of her son and his wife.

Police said residents of the Shantipur neighbourhood, about 70 km from Calcutta, broke open the main door of the house when they heard her scream. Sadhukha died at Shaktinagar State General Hospital early this morning.

Uma, the daughter-in-law, and her parents Ashutosh and Gauri Chanda were arrested after Sadhukha’s daughter Munmun lodged a complaint with the police. Her brother Sanjay is absconding. “Munmun said Sanjay and Uma wanted Basanti to hand over the house and tortured her as she refused to do so,” a police officer said. Neither Munmun nor her father Dilip were at home when she apparently committed suicide.

Gardens shut

Jalpaiguri: Days after Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee announced in Siliguri that tea estate owners “could not desert gardens”, the managements of three gardens downed shutters. Simulbarie and New Chumta in the Terai region and New Glanco in Malbazar here, have taken the number of closed estates to 23.

Trader death

Calcutta: Sailesh Pathak, a supplier of electronics goods, was found dead in his Ananda Palit Road office. Police said there was no external injury. Pathak, 45, was missing from his Beniapukur home since Saturday afternoon.

Drug haul

Lalgola: Almost a kg of heroin, worth a crore, was seized by Narcotics Control Bureau and BSF personnel from a village here in Murshidabad, about 280 km from Calcutta. Five people, including Mohammad Murtaza, whose house was raided, were arrested.