Bijaya Das, 82, and her husband Prasanta Das, 87, could barely walk, even with sticks, and became easy targets for the killer who raided their home.
Their daughter, who is settled in Germany and last spoke to her mother on Wednesday, could not connect with her on Thursday but never thought she had already spoken to her mother one last time.
“I spoke to her last on Wednesday. I could not contact her on Thursday. Ma also did not call. And today I learned this. They could have taken everything even without killing her… they killed my mom. Beat both my parents, who are 87 and 82. My father just had a surgery. My mom is a 75 per cent burn patient for a long time. Both could hardly walk,” the daughter lamented.
According to the preliminary post-mortem opinion, Bijaya was killed on Thursday morning.
“My mom was found with her hands, legs and mouth tied, dead in the corridor. My father was beaten up and left under the bed,” she said.
The brutal killing of the woman and the assault on her husband, living alone while their children stay elsewhere, again highlighted the vulnerability of elderly citizens in the city who depend either on help or strangers for their daily chores.
Neighbours at New Garia Cooperative Housing said Prasanta had of late started to keep to himself after his ailments increased.
“Both were ill. They would take food from a home delivery service. They would barely step out,” said a neighbour.
Calcutta has a large number of elderly citizens who stay alone and have devised ways to survive on their own.
“The problem starts when the people they trust betray them. We get so many cases where elderly people are cheated financially by people whom they trust to carry out their banking operations. Same is the case for domestic helps,” said a Kolkata Police officer.
The police probing the incident said it was not clear how many persons carried out the crime.
“One thing is clear. People who had access to the house had done it. Otherwise, the electricity supply line and the CCTV connection could not have been snapped. Also, there are no signs of a break-in on either the main door or the rear door,” said an investigator.
The rear door was bolted from outside on Friday.