Satyabrata Dutta

Calcutta, June 18: Satyabrata Dutta, Satyada, died as he lived: shrouded in mystery with a trail of unanswered questions that are sure to haunt his students and family alike.

The body of the 52-year-old, whose popular coaching centres virtually challenged the conventional education system in Bengal, was found at his plush Kasba residence last afternoon in what is suspected to be a suicide case.

Police are awaiting the post-mortem report, but many are sure he was murdered.

Mystery surrounds the role of Dutta’s third wife Swapna, who was allegedly eyeing his property and whose statements to the police about her movements yesterday are riddled with inconsistencies.

Dutta owned two educational institutes at Surya Sen Street and Kasba and a chain of centres across the state and catered to nearly 2 lakh students since the early 1970s, offering “sure-shot suggestions” for exams.

So many people thought Dutta was murdered that a big crowd that included his first wife Arati and son Amitava turned up at Kasba police station this afternoon to vent their ire and convince the investigating officer that the man who created parallel private education in the state could not have killed himself.

As the hours went by, Dutta’s employees from Central Calcutta Correspondence College — an institute he had built to cater to the aspirations of degree-hunters — trickled into the police station along with his students.

With matters threatening to get out of hand, inspector-in-charge T.K. Biswas had to struggle to impose order.

“I suspect my husband was murdered. There was no reason for him to commit suicide,” said Arati, who married the self-proclaimed PhD in the 1970s. She turned up at the police station with a letter stating the same and finally got the police to accept it. Amitava claimed his 6-ft-plus father could not have hanged himself from an almirah.

“When the (Dutta’s) driver informed us, we didn’t dare, fearing police harassment. The lady (Swapna) would often threaten us with police action if ever we decided to protest (against) her efforts to beat up my father. But we would hear sounds of physical assault frequently,” he said.