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Regular-article-logo Wednesday, 18 June 2025

DEATHLY ODE TO LOVE 

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BY AVIJIT NANDI MAZUMDAR Published 18.05.00, 12:00 AM
Calcutta, May 18 :     Mystery shrouds the death of 24-year-old actress Rumni Chatterjee in a sprawling flat on Prince Ghulam Hussain Shah Road, in the Jadavpur police station area, late on Wednesday night. Neighbours and husband Debangshu Sengupta, 38, broke open the second-floor flat and found Rumni hanging from the ceiling of her bedroom at around 8.20 pm. Police said Debangshu had left the house at 7.45 pm to buy cigarettes. She was taken to the nearest hospital, where doctors declared her dead. Police officers found a suicide note and a dairy where Rumni had scribbled some messages, which indicated a discord between husband and wife. Rumni was an actress in Bengali soap operas and Debangshu is a director. They married on March 10 this year. Rumni plays the female lead in the 'mega serial' Mahaprabhu. For both Debangshu and Rumni, this was their second marriage. Rumni had earlier tied the knot with her childhood sweetheart, Prasenjit Pal, in 1993. The couple separated in 1999 but Rumni got her divorce in January 2000. Debangshu's first wife was actress Kheyali Dastidar. According to Rumni's messages scribbled in the pages of her diary, she was going through mental trauma because her husband and mother-in-law suspected her of having an illicit relationship. Police officers who confiscated the diary and were unscrambling Rumni's notes said that in one of the pages, she had written: 'Ami tomakey bhishon bhalobashi. Tomar mone Pochada ar Mayer deya sandeho jegechhey kintu tumi ekta phone number-ey phone korey khoj nitey paro (I love you very much. Mother-in-law and Pochada must have poisoned your ears but you ring up this number and find out for yourself about me and my love for you).'' In another page, she writes: 'Aami tomakey bhalobasi. Ami praman korey debo ami tomakey kato bhalobasi (I love you and I want to prove to you how much I love you). The officer-in-charge of Jadavpur police station, Salil Bhattacharya, said her handwriting is very clear and crisp. In the suicide note, she professes her love for Debangshu and writes that no one is responsible for her death. 'One day you will find out how much I love you,'' she wrote in the note, police said. The couple's neighbours in the building on Prince Ghulam Hussain Shah Road were shocked at the sudden turn of events. Dr A.K. Mitra, who lives across the floor from the Senguptas' flat, told police officers that Debangshu was a 'very soft-spoken person'' and that 'he is not aware of any tension between the couple.'' 'There were no major quarrels. The couple also did not ever misbehave with anybody,'' Mitra told investigating officers. The family had a deaf Golden Retriever for a pet. According to neighbours, the dog was very attached to Rumni. On breaking open the flat, neighbours saw the dog kneeling near the door of Rumni's bedroom and crying. Police are baffled that neither the neighbours nor Rumni's mother, Seema Chatterjee, suspect foul play. They all spoke well of her husband. 'The messages in the diary indicate that there was an element of mistrust and misunderstanding between husband and wife,'' said deputy superintendent of police, Subhankar Chatterjee. Even the family of Rumni's former husband, Prasenjit Pal, had words of praise for her. 'She was a bubbly, jolly girl. Prasenjit and Rumni were a perfect match. They divorced by mutual consent after Rumni fell for Debangshu while shooting for Mahaprabhu,'' said Ruma Nandy, a relative of Prasenjit, who shared close links with Rumni. Seema Chatterjee, Rumni's mother, told the police she will wait for the post-mortem report before deciding what she will do next. 'I don't suspect anything but I want to wait for the post-mortem,'' she said in a written statement to the police. A pall of gloom descended on Rajendralal Road, in Narkeldanga, where Rumni's family lives. Her former husband, Prasenjit, who stays close by, broke down and rushed to the hospital, from where he and other people from the locality accompanied the body to the crematorium.    
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