Anupama Sarkar's Shocking Death Due To Book Bomb - Episode 54 - 28th October 2011
THE INSIDE STORY
THE INSIDE STORY
Malda, April 24: A 26-year-old schoolteacher was killed today when a parcel supposedly containing books exploded while she was trying to open it. The parcel had been delivered at her rented accommodation in Malda town this afternoon.
Aparna Biswas died moments after she was admitted to the Malda district hospital. Police are on the lookout for two youths, one of them her former husband and the other supposedly an engineer with whom she had developed a relationship after her divorce. The police said they were yet to find out the nature of explosive used but confirmed that a detonator had triggered the explosion.
Aparna taught Bengali at Ramakrishna Balika Vidyalaya, where she had joined after clearing the School Service Commission exams in 2009. Police said she had rented a room in Sitangshu Das’s house in Malanchapalli close to her school seven months ago. Earlier, she used to stay in a private hostel.
Sources at Englishbazar police station said they were looking for Aparna’s former husband Sanjay Biswas, an unemployed youth whom she had divorced two months before she got the job when she realised he was having an affair.
“However, my main suspicion is on Prince Ghosh, a resident of Mangalbari with whom she had developed a relationship. She had a fight with him about one-and-a-half years ago while they were on a bus bound for Raiganj. Prince had slapped my daughter and she had also struck him back. After that, she cut off all ties with him. But lately, he had been issuing threats to my daughter over the phone, saying he would not let her be anyone else’s,” an officer at Englishbazar police station quoted Aparna’s father Swarup Biswas as saying.
The officer said since the police came to know about Prince, an engineer whose place of work was still unknown, only after Aparna’s father arrived from Habibpur after 6pm, it would take some time to track him.
Two police teams have been despatched to Habibpur, 50km from here, and Old Malda to look for Sanjay and Prince.
The police said the daughter of the landlord had heard a youth calling out Aparna’s name around 10.30am.
“The youth, aged between 28 and 30 years, handed a large parcel to my daughter. He even made her sign on white and yellow slips of paper. The parcel had Aparna’s name on it and said it contained 10 famous novels. The address, ‘c/o Sitangshu Das, Malanchapalli, Malda’ was written clearly on the top. The sender was Subham Biswas from Vivekananda Palli, Gajole — at least that was the name written,” an investigating officer quoted the landlord as saying.
Investigations revealed that Aparna, who was pursuing her post-graduate degree, had gone to Malda College to attend classes. “She returned around noon when the landlord’s daughter gave her the parcel,” the officer said.
The landlord’s wife Rekha said their daughter had gone downstairs to hand over the brown-paper parcel to Aparna when she arrived.
“After about five minutes there was a loud explosion that shook the house. We all rushed downstairs and found Aparna’s room covered in thick smoke. We heard Aparna moaning in pain. There was hardly any sign of the bed on which she was sitting and there were shreds of paper all over the room which was splattered with blood. The lower half of her body was almost severed. We immediately took her to the district hospital,” Rekha said.
“I shudder to think what would have happened if the parcel had gone off while we were handling it,” she added.
The police arrived at the scene around 12.45pm and sealed the room.
“We are going to take the help of the CID in this case. We have also asked the bomb squad in Siliguri and forensic experts in Calcutta to do their investigation. I cannot tell you the nature of explosive used in this case till forensic tests are done, but there was a detonator that set it off when the woman tore the parcel. We have sent police teams to Gajole,” said Malda police superintendent Bhuban Mondol.
Swarup Biswas said his daughter had big plans for her brother, Sujan, who will appear for his Madhyamik exams next year. “Sujan used to stay with her in Malda. He was with us in Habibur today and I dread to think what would have happened if he was there,” the father, a farmer, said.
Aparna’s colleagues had come to the hospital. “We are totally in the dark about why someone should kill her,” said headmistress Sudipta Kumar.
Thanks To:
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1110425/jsp/siliguri/story_13897674.jsp
