Nilima Gangopadhyay

Nilima Gangopadhyay would have lived had the three goons who gagged and bludgeoned her to death on Friday not been freed all five times they were arrested last year.

Kele Adhikary, Raja Adhikary and Munia Moira are repeat offenders who have been in and out of custody, though this is the first time they are in the dock for murder.

Investigators said the trio and their accomplices — Bua, Hugo and Raju — would regularly steal scrap iron and pipes from the Rabindra Sarovar warehouse of the Calcutta Improvement Trust, snatch valuables from people and break into houses.

The goons had been out on bail for the past four months but Lake police station did not bother to check what they were up to during this period.

The police are known to keep those arrested for petty crimes on a leash by arresting them within a week of their release on bail on different charges. But this practice has not been followed this year.

The officer-in-charge of Lake police station, Debasish Baidya, said he hadn’t heard about Kele, Raja and Munia until Nilima’s murder in her Dhakuria house. “This is the first time I am hearing their names,” Debasish Baidya said, seemingly oblivious to the fact that they were brought to the police station he now heads five times last year.

“I joined two-and-a-half months ago and knowing the names of criminals active in my area in this short time is not possible.”

An officer of the nearby Jadavpur police station blamed his Lake colleagues for the murder.

“The trio used to operate mainly in the areas under the jurisdiction of Lake police station. Had they kept them behind bars, the murder could have been averted.”

The officer claimed that Kele, Raja and Munia got bail each time they were arrested because Lake police station did not file proper chargesheets.

Nilima, 86, was alone in her house when the accused entered her ground-floor flat through the rear. Her son Gautam was at work.

Nilima was found in a pool of blood with her mouth stuffed with cloth and the back of her head smashed. The assailants did not find anything other than a camera and Rs 950 to steal because the victim had kept all her jewellery and savings in the bank.

Jadavpur police arrested Nilima’s domestic help Shampa Das along with the trio on Saturday. Shampa and the youths, all in their twenties, are residents of Panchanantala Railway Colony.