IIT man kills sister, attempts suicide

The Basu residence in Garia. Picture by Bishwarup Dutta

A 29-year-old man from Calcutta tried to commit suicide early on Wednesday after allegedly throttling his younger sister to death at their Pune residence.

According to Pune police, acute depression possibly led Subhajit Basu, to kill Priyadarshini, 23, at their first-floor flat at Aparajita Residency behind Maratha Mandir. Their parents live in Narkel Bagan, Garia.

“A preliminary probe suggested that Subhajit had throttled his sister to death around dawn on Wednesday. He then tried to kill himself by slashing his veins and consuming phenyl, but he survived,” said a police officer of Hinjwadi police station in Pune.

Another officer said Subhajit, an IIT Kharagpur alumnus, was taken to Sasoon Hospital and was said to be “out of danger”.

The siblings’ father Sadhan Basu, an advocate, and mother Kalyani left for Pune as soon as they were informed about the incident.

Neighbours in Pune told the police that they had heard the siblings arguing loudly late into the night on Tuesday.

“On Wednesday morning, we found the door and windows of their flat shut and informed the police,” an officer quoted a neighbour as saying.

The police broke open the door and found Subhajit in a pool of blood. They also found Priyadarshini’s body.

The siblings’ aunt, who lives next to their Garia home, said Subhajit had shifted to Pune in November to research on robotics after returning from the US because of lack of funds. Priyadarshini had been living in Pune for the past few years and was working with an NGO, she added.

Subhajit, a student of Nava Nalanda High School, had recently submitted a project but it was rejected, the aunt said.

“A lot of money was at stake, which perhaps led to his depression,” she said, adding that Subhajit had worked for a while in Bangalore and even tried his hand at business in Calcutta before shifting to Pune.

The cops investigating the case also pointed to a number of reasons that could have led to Subhajit’s bizarre act.

“He was trying to set up a business in Pune but it didn’t take off. He had even lost his laptop, which reportedly contained a lot of important data,” said Mahesh Patil, the deputy commissioner of Pune police (Zone III).

According to the aunt, Priyadarshini had told their mother about Subhajit’s state of mind a few days back and asked her to come to Pune.

“Kalyani had already booked a train ticket for Pune for Wednesday. Had my sister reached a day earlier, this tragedy would not have occurred. Now nothing is left,” sobbed the aunt.

She added that Priyadarshini, too, had studied at Nava Nalanda school and shifted to Pune for her graduation and masters in environmental science. “I don’t know what could have led to this horrible tragedy. The brother and sister were very close, we had never noticed any rivalry between them,” she said.

“Subhajit had the option of doing his research in Pune or Ahmedabad. He chose Pune specifically because his sister was living there,” the aunt said.