Police are trying to find out how many prospective buyers Subir Chaki had met for his three-storey house on Kankulia Road near Golpark in south Kolkata and the identity of some of the recent callers.
Chaki, the managing director of Kilburn Engineering Ltd, and his driver Rabin Mondal were found dead in the Kankulia Road house on Sunday night.
Police broke open the door of the house and found Chaki, who used to live in an apartment in New Town with his wife and mother, on the first floor and Mondal on the second floor.
Chaki’s son lives in London and daughter in Bangalore.
Officers suspect Chaki had gone to Kankulia Road to meet a prospective buyer for the house, which he had been trying to sell for one-and-a-half years.
Preliminary post-mortem reports say a sharp weapon was used to murder both. Chaki suffered deep cuts on his neck and leg and Mondal on his back, neck and leg.
“The murders took place between three and four hours after their last meal, the preliminary post-mortem reports suggest,” said a senior officer of the detective department.
Investigators have learnt that Mondal, who had been working for the Chakis for almost a decade, would attend to prospective buyers and take them around the house.
Officers of Gairahat police station and their counterparts in the detective department of the Kolkata police visited the two floors of the Kankulia Road house several times on Monday trying to understand the layout of the house and the entrance to the building from one of its sides. The ground floor of the building has been rented out to a consultancy firm.
Sanat Kr SinhaInvestigators said Chaki had possibly decided to meet a prospective buyer personally on Sunday. “He reached the Kankulia Road house around 5.30pm and entered the house by opening the main entrance, on one side of the building,” said an officer.
The ground floor of the building was rented out to a consulting agency, which was closed on Sunday.
“The property is worth a few crores of rupees,” the officer said.
Officers of the detective department of Kolkata police believe the killers were probably aware of the outlay of the house.
The ground floor has a door that opens to a flight to steps leading to the first floor. On Monday, the police found the door locked from inside.
“The door used to remain open. We would shut it before closing our office for the day,” said an employee at the consulting agency.
“On Monday, the door was locked from inside. Someone must have locked it to ensure no one could access the stairs even if our office was open.”
The investigators have seized Chaki’s mobile phone. Officers said the detailed call records were being retrieved to find out who would call up the victim frequently and who he interacted with on Sunday afternoon.
Late on Monday, a team of forensic experts inspected the house and found trails of blood from the second to the first floor. The cops are scanning CCTV footage of the house.
“There weren’t any valuables in the house. The property papers are not missing,” the officer said.
The police have learnt that Mondal lived in Mominpur. His wife is ailing and admitted to hospital. The couple have three sons and a daughter.
