Murder accused Manisha Patel was just another Liluah homemaker bringing up a child and caring for her family until frustration over her lifestyle got the better of her, say investigators.

“Her husband Tushar Patel has told us that his wife longed for luxuries they couldn’t afford. They lived in the same house but were not on talking terms lately,” said an officer of Bhowanipore police station, a day after 39-year-old Manisha was arrested in Bihar for the murder of south Calcutta homemaker Chetna Sanghvi.

But Manisha’s in-laws, who share the couple’s two-room flat on the third floor of Gujarat Mansion at Rabindra Sarani in Liluah, said they were unaware of this allegedly darker side of her personality.

“To us, she was our three-and-a-half-year-old grandson’s mother. There was nothing unusual in her behaviour,” rued father-in-law Vinod Patel.

Manisha, a cousin of the victim’s husband, wouldn’t even have been on the investigators’ radar had she not left behind her bag in the Sanghvis’ first-floor flat after the crime.

“She and her two accomplices were returning to Howrah when Manisha realised that she had forgotten to pick up her bag. Going back to get it would have been futile because they had slammed the door shut from outside and didn’t have a key to the automatic lock,” an officer said.

The bag contained a receipt in Manisha’s name for her life insurance premium along with her cellphone. Her call records led them to identify 22-year-old Rajib Das, who works in a jewellery shop at Bagri Market in Burrabazar, as one of her accomplices. Both were traced to Rajib’s ancestral home in Vaishali district of Bihar on Wednesday. The third accused, Raju, is absconding.

The police have learnt that Manisha had approached the Sanghvis for money earlier “to set up a catering business”, only to be rebuffed. “That she went to the Bhowanipore flat again on Monday with two accomplices indicates that the murder might not have been a spur-of-the-moment thing,” said an investigator.

An officer quoted Tushar as saying that he only knew that his wife was frustrated over their financial condition.

What about her association with Rajib? “She has been going out of home frequently of late but I don’t know who she has been meeting,” Tushar told the police.

Colleagues of Rajib confirmed seeing “an older woman” coming to the shop to meet him. But Manisha’s brother-in-law Snehal Patel said he never noticed “anything suspicious” in her behaviour. “In any case, both Tushar and I would leave home early and return late.”

The only one in the Patel home who still doesn’t know about Manisha being arrested is her son. “My nephew has been asking about his mother. We have told him she is in hospital,” said Snehal.

Monday afternoon: Manisha Patel tries to convince her cousin’s wife, Chetna Sanghvi, to lend her Rs 2 lakh to set up a business. Accomplice Rajib Das is seated next to her in the dining space of the Sanghvis’ Bhowanipore flat	Chetna replies that she and her husband don’t earn enough from their Burrabazar gifts shop to lend money, prompting Rajib and Manisha to lunge at her. The duo try to throttle the homemaker, causing her to fall from the chair
Chetna is dragged to her bedroom by Rajib, who pins her down on the bed with his knees on her chest. He and Manisha then strangle her to death	Duo leave after slamming the door shut but forget to take Manisha’s bag, placed on a wooden rack. They flee to Vaishali in Bihar but cops trace them, thanks to Manisha’s bag

Graphic: Sanjay