Many questions remain unanswered three days after a car crash on EM Bypass led to the discovery of three dead and bloodied women in their four-storey home in Tangra.
Police, who say the women were murdered, are yet to piece together the sequence of events between Monday night and the 3.30am car crash on Wednesday.
Brothers Pranay and Prasun Dey and Pranay’s 14-year-old son were in the car, injured. Pranay’s wife Sudeshna, 39, Prasun’s wife Romi, 44, and Prasun-Romi’s daughter Priyambada, 14, were dead at their home.
Police sources say the brothers have from their hospital bed claimed a failed “suicide pact”. The two men have allegedly claimed that all six ate a sedative-laced payesh on Monday night and, when it failed to cause death, the brothers on Tuesday murdered the women with a knife and later tried to kill themselves by crashing their car.
But questions abound. Here are some that the police want answered:
• Why did Pranay and Prasun not choose to die the same way as their wives if there indeed was a suicide pact?
The post-mortem reports of all the three victims indicate murder, police sources have said. The girl showed signs of poisoning and had multiple injuries, while the two women died of excess bleeding from their cuts, officers said.
The men have shown neither any signs of poisoning nor any credible attempt at suicide with the weapons they claim to have used on the women.
“It’s apparent that the two women’s death was ensured with a sharp weapon and the injuries on the young girl indicate struggle. But there was no such attempt on the men of the family,” an investigator said.
Pranay is said to have told the police he had suffered a “drug overdose” but he showed no such symptoms after his hospital admission, an officer said.
Cut marks were found on Prasun’s wrist but not of the type that can kill, the police said. Similar cuts were found on the teenage boy’s arms too.
• Why didn’t all the family members show signs of poisoning?
A senior officer said it remained unclear whether all the family members had eaten the drug-laced dessert.
“Apart from the girl, “there were no symptoms of poisoning in any other family member”, he said.
• Why did the men drive around the city for two-and-a-half hours before the crash?
If the Dey brothers indeed crashed their car deliberately to end their lives, why did it take them two-and-a-half hours to do so after they left their home at 12.51am on Wednesday (as established by CCTV footage), police sources said.
“Crashing a car with airbags – which reduce the impact of the crash on the occupants -- is certainly not the way to commit suicide,” one of the investigators said.
“The time they took to decide (to crash the car) and also the mode of the alleged suicide attempt raises doubts. In contrast, the cut marks on the women were straight and direct, betraying no signs of indecision.”
• What route did the car take?
The police said they were yet to ascertain the route the car had followed on Wednesday morning: from the Dey home at 21C Atal Sur Road, Tangra, to the Avishikta crossing on EM Bypass where the crash occurred.
The brothers have reportedly cited a route and claimed they took more than two-and-a-half hours to cover it at night. “Their statement is being verified. The route — and whether they stopped anywhere – are crucial to the case,” an officer attached to the probe said.
• Why did the men sit in the dark at their home for hours before/after killing the women?
According to the preliminary postmortem reports of the three victims, they were killed sometime between 1pm on Tuesday and 1am on Wednesday.
“It’s apparent that by the time the men left the house (at 12.51am), the women were dead. But the neighbours’ statements suggest the family did not switch on their lights on Tuesday evening,” an officer said.
“It’s unclear why they would wait in the dark for so long before stepping out.”
• Why was the household help asked to come on Wednesday morning?
One of the family’s cleaners, Babla Sardar, who also works in the Deys’ factory, said he had arrived at the Dey residence around 8am on Tuesday but no one answered the bell.
About 15 minutes later, he said, he received a call from one of the Dey brothers who told him not to report for work on Tuesday and come on Wednesday instead.
Sardar said he received another call almost immediately, telling him to pass on the same message to the family priest.