The chartered accountant who was found murdered in a hotel in Kasba on Saturday had met his alleged killers through a dating app just the day before, police said.
According to officers, the accused couple had inserted the phone’s SIM card into their phone to change his ATM PIN so they could withdraw money from his account after his death.
According to the statements of the accused, they met 33-year-old Adarsh Losalka through a dating app named Bumble on November 20.
“They planned to meet the next day. They booked two rooms at Hotel Consulate — one for Losalka and the other for the couple,” said joint commissioner (crime), Kolkata Police, Rupesh Kumar.
They partied in Losalka’s room, the police said.
“The accused said they had a “couple account” in Bumble. However, it was the woman who had chatted with Losalka and fixed the appointment,” Kumar said.
The couple, Dhruba Mitra and Kamal Saha, had checked out of the hotel early on Saturday. Hours later, when Losalka did not check out at the scheduled time, the hotel staff found his body in the room.
“His nose had a fracture, and there were bruises all over his body. There were marks of struggle all over the room. Two mobile phones belonging to the deceased and his wallet were missing,” said an officer attached to the probe.
The accused couple had hired app bikes to reach Ultadanga separately. They used Losalka’s ATM card to withdraw ₹11,000 from ATMs at Ultadanga, Barrackpore and Krishnanagar, the police said.
“The couple had pulled out the SIM card from one of Losalka’s phones and changed the ATM’s PIN by opting for the ‘forgot password’ option and then generating an OTP in his registered number,” Kumar said.
After their arrest, the police recovered Losalka’s two phones. They also seized the phones of the accused.
Although the dating app had been deleted from their phones, the police said they were in the process of retrieving the app’s history to recover the exact nature of their chat and the time from when they had been in touch.
Mitra and Saha, both 20, have known each other since they were in Class XI, the police said. They were produced before the court on Monday.
They were remanded to police till December 2.