A couple from Calcutta travelled 1,400km to Delhi last week and allegedly murdered Debosmita Paul, a 45-year-old assistant professor of English at a Delhi University college, over a property dispute.
Delhi police on Sunday arrested the couple from Calcutta and detained their “minor son”, who is said to have been present at the murder spot and will be brought to Delhi with his parents for questioning.
Officers did not mention the boy’s age or say which Calcutta locality the suspects lived in.
Debosmita’s body was found in her sixth-floor flat at a high-rise society in east Delhi’s Vasundhara Enclave on Thursday. She had severe head injuries. Both her wrists were slit and she had bruises on her face and body, suggesting a scuffle, the police say.
Accused Ramprasad Das and Banashree Das, who are originally from Burdwan, are tenants in one of Debosmita’s ancestral properties in Calcutta, deputy commissioner of police Rajiv Kumar said.
“The couple wanted to buy the house they had been living in for years. Debosmita’s parents and two siblings were reportedly ready to sell it, as the entire family is settled in Delhi and have no plans to return to Calcutta,” Kumar said.
“But the professor was against the family’s decision to sell the ancestral property. The couple were angry as she was not giving her consent despite their repeated requests. They travelled to Delhi, killed her on Wednesday, and returned to Calcutta.”
No valuables were missing from the flat, which ruled out robbery. The police suspected that the murderer was someone known to the victim.
Officers said Debosmita, who taught at Shivaji College, lived alone in her flat in Satyam Apartment since her husband was based in Bengaluru.
Security cameras showed a masked man, a masked woman and a boy enter the apartment complex on Wednesday, the police said. They were spotted leaving after 40 to 45 minutes, having changed their clothes.
The accused had arrived in a private cab with a few bags and climbed the stairs to the sixth floor. Officers said they had brought their son along to avoid suspicion.
“A probe has revealed that she (Debosmita) was attacked with a blunt object that caused fatal injuries to her head. They (the suspects) had brought the blunt weapon with them,” an officer said.
He did not identify the weapon.
The suspects left in the same cab, which had been waiting downstairs, the officer said. The driver was detained and his ride details were accessed to identify the passengers.
Sources said at least 13 suspects were short-listed and questioned from among 200 people who had visited the housing complex on Wednesday.
Seven police teams carried out raids across four states and questioned hundreds of people before the arrests were made in Calcutta.
Police sources did not clarify exactly how theyhad zeroed in on the coupleor realised they lived inCalcutta.
The body was found when Debosmita’s elder sister Debarati Paul, who lives with her family in the same area of Delhi, visited the Satyam Apartment flat on Thursday, the police said.
Debarati found the door locked. After repeated calls to her sister went unanswered, she alerted the residents’ welfare association. The lock was broken in the presence of association members.