Partha Ghosh at his Howrah home on Wednesday. Picture by Amit Datta

Srabonti Ghosh and her eight-year-old daughter Prapti were killed for revenge and not for gain, believe police, since nothing was missing from their Howrah home.

The bodies were found in a bedroom of the Government of India Press Colony house on Tuesday evening, with the door loosely shut and the television on. Srabonti’s husband Partha was at work in his Chowringhee office.

The assailants slit Srabonti’s throat and stabbed her several times, before stabbing Prapti and suffocating her with a pillow, said a sleuth.

A post-mortem revealed deep cuts on Srabonti’s throat, left hand and back. There were also cuts on her leg. The cut on Prapti’s neck was not deep. They were killed between 3pm and 4pm, added the investigator.

Fingerprint experts have ruled out the theory that a bonti was used to murder the two. According to them, a sharp weapon, like a bhojali, was used. The post-mortem report, however, suggested that the bonti and another sharp weapon were both used.

“It seems that more than one killer was inside the house. When Srabonti resisted their attempts to overpower her, they slit her throat and then stabbed her,” said an officer of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID), which is assisting Howrah police in the probe.

The CID officers found a pair of bloodstained, rubber surgical gloves from a dustbin near a local pond. They suspect that the killers threw the weapon used in the crime into the pond before fleeing. An hour-long search in the pond was, however, fruitless.

“The surgical gloves that were found beside the two bodies were not used in the crime. They were kept there to mislead us. The gloves actually used in the crime have been sent for tests,” said another officer.

The CID team, led by special inspector-general Neeraj Nayan Pandey, interrogated Shyamashree, the wife of local resident Indrajit Das, alias Chandan.

She was seen entering the Ghosh house around 1pm on Tuesday by neighbours and was then heard arguing with Srabonti.

“I had visited the house while returning from a relative’s place. We were friends and it was just a courtesy call. I was there for half an hour,” said Shyamashree.