Debanti Shaw (top) and her son Bhola. Pictures by Gopal Senapati

A youth, helped by his friend, allegedly tried to kill his mother, strangling her with an iron wire on Saturday night.

Bhola Shaw, 25, a resident of Mirpara, in Liluah, tried to kill Debanti Shaw, 50, in the hope of getting her job. Debanti is a sweeper with Eastern Railway.

Bhola and his partner in crime, Sanjay Sil, 19, have been arrested. “They have admitted to the crime. We will seek police custody for the duo when they are produced in court on Monday,” said Niraj Kumar Singh, the superintendent of Howrah police.

Bhola’s siblings — Prabhu, 16, and Muni, 15 — said he often tortured their mother for money. On Saturday evening, Bhola told his mother that their lawyer wanted to meet her to discuss a case of torture levelled against him by his wife.

“Debanti set off for the lawyer’s house in Bhattanagar, unaware that Bhola and Sanjay were tailing her. They caught up with her at the deserted Jheelpar, where they tried to strangle her with an iron wire. After she lost consciousness, they threw her behind a bush, thinking she had died,” said an officer.

Around 8.30pm, some local residents passing by heard her groaning and informed the police, who sent her to Howrah Orthopaedic Hospital.

Son and murderer: Dola Ghosh, a 40-year-old widow, was found murdered at her Khardah home on Sunday morning. Police suspect Dola was killed by her 18-year-old son Sovon, who is absconding.

Dola lived in a one-room house in Khardah’s Milnagar with Sovon and daughter (from her second marriage) Tina, 11.

Tina woke up on Sunday morning to discover her mother lying blood-soaked, her throat slit. “Sovon is likely to be behind the murder, though we are probing other angles as well,” said P.K. Tripathi, the additional superintendent of police (Barrackpore).

Tina and her relatives told the police that Sovon would often fight with his mother over property. “He reportedly threatened her several times to hand over the property to him,” said an officer.