A 36-year-old homemaker who had died during a robbery in her Lee Road home two years ago had allegedly been killed deliberately by the robbers who had been employed by her brother’s 26-year-old former girlfriend.

On Monday, police produced in the high court “evidence” of Shilpi Manna’s involvement in the murder of Suparna Mondal. The court was hearing the bail petition of Akhtar Sheikh, who had been arrested shortly after the 2009 robbery. Cops believe he had been hired by Shilpi to eliminate Suparna.

“Shilpi blamed Suparna for the end of her relationship with Suparna’s brother Sudhir. To take revenge, she had engaged Akhtar and four other criminals from Usthi in South 24-Parganas to kill Suparna,” Kallol Mondal, the lawyer representing the police, told the court.

“Five armed men raided Suparna’s house around 2pm on April 24, 2009, when her husband Gautam was away. The gang killed Suparna and took away her gold ornaments, worth Rs 2.5 lakh. The police had initially thought that Suparna had been killed because she had tried to resist the dacoits,” the lawyer added.

He told the court that the police had found out from Gautam that Shilpi had visited Suparna at their house a few hours before the murder. “We later learnt that Suparna’s brother Sudhir, the owner of a pen factory, had developed a relationship with Shilpi.”

When Shilpi became pregnant, Suparna reportedly told her that she would let her brother marry her if she agreed to an abortion.

“Shipli had agreed to Suparna’s proposal. But after the abortion, Suparna did not keep her word. On the day of the murder, Shilpi had gone to Suparna’s house to request her to ask her brother to marry her. When Suparna refused, Shilpi asked Akhtar and his men to kill her,” said the lawyer.

Shilpi had been arrested a couple of days after Akhtar. “She has confessed to her crime and now faces the charge of murder along with members of the gang,” said the lawyer.

The division bench of Justice Asim Kumar Roy and Justice Shukla Kabir Sinha declined bail to Akhtar.