Residents of Rameswara Apartments see a cruel irony in Bimala Khetawat’s suicide. “The woman who plotted a murder to save her marriage had to finally take her own life,” said a resident who did not want to be named.

Bimala, 63, had been convicted of murdering Bina Nawlakha and her husband Girish 17 years ago. The police investigation revealed that Bimala had plotted the couple’s killing as she suspected her husband Jugal Kishore was having an affair with Bina.

“Bimala was out on bail but she hardly ventured out of the 10th floor flat on Sarat Bose Road,” said a family friend.

On the morning of December 25, 1991, the Nawlakhas were found murdered in their flat, which was adjacent to the Khetawats’. The two were strangled to death.

The sleuths came to know that Bimala had hired four men to murder the Nawlakhas. They were Khokon Giri (a peon in the Khetawats’ Rameswara Transport Company), Raju Rao (a driver of one of the residents of Rameswara Apartments), Jagadish Yadav (a sweeper) and Kamini Dey.

Bimala was picked up eight days after the murder, following the arrest of Giri.

Policemen at the suicide site on Sarat Bose Road on Monday. Picture by Pabitra Das

She had spent around 70 days in jail till she got bail from the high court on health grounds. But she was back behind bars in 1997, after the sixth additional district judge of Alipore convicted her and the four others in the twin murder case and sentenced them to life imprisonment.

“While serving the sentence, Bimala moved the Supreme Court, seeking bail on health grounds. She was granted bail in early 1998,” said a detective department official.

She was back in prison again last year, after the high court rejected her appeal against the trial court order and upheld the conviction. She again moved a bail application in the apex court and it was granted.

Her appeal against the trial court order was pending in the Supreme Court.