KOLKATA: A car crash on the EM Bypass early on Wednesday that left three members of a family gravely injured, followed by the discovery of three lifeless bodies of family members of the crash survivors at their home a few kilometres away in Tangra, eastern Kolkata, has left city cops sniffing a suicide pact, even though they have also lodged a murder complaint.
The cops suspect the Deys were driven to take the extreme step after failing to recover from Covid-time losses in their leather goods manufacturing and exports trade. The business family lived jointly in a four-storey house on Atal Sur Lane, Tangra.
The chain of events, at least the public part of it, began around 3.35am near the Avishikta crossing, when a sedan — occupied by Prasun Dey (48), Pranay Dey (44) and Pratip Dey (14), Pranay’s son — dashed into a pillar at 100kmph, smashing the vehicle almost beyond recognition. Miraculously, the three occupants were alive, and taken to hospital.
The next link of the macabre chain fell into place nearly six hours later, when Pranay told cops from his hospital bed that there were three women lying dead at his house: his wife Sudeshna, sister-in-law Romi and niece Priyamvada, joint CP (crime & traffic) Rupesh Kumar told TOI. Pranay also said that the family of six had first consumed payesh (a traditional dessert) laced with sedatives in order to die, and some of them also inflicted injuries on themselves. He also said the three of them had then set out in the car to die by suicide. Pratip was sitting in the rear seat, while his uncle, the younger of the two brothers, was driving.
A team from the Tangra PS rushed to the Deys’s house and broke open the main door lock to gain entry. On the first floor, they found the three bodies in different rooms. There were bloodstains in multiple areas. Police commissioner Manoj Verma said the two older women — Romi and Sudeshna — had throat and wrist injuries. Forensics experts who later visited the spot have also not ruled out blunt-object injuries. Significantly, one of the survivors, Pratip, also has cuts on his wrist. Verma also confirmed that Priyamvada, a student of a reputable south Kolkata school, had bruises on her lips and near her nose. She was also frothing at the mouth.
Viscera of the deceased have been preserved for chemical analysis.
The cops now surmise that the car crash was deliberate, part of a suicide pact between the six members of the family. The cops, however, have lodged a murder complaint against unknown persons, lodged by Romi’s father.
Video and written statements of the three hospitalised people have been recorded, and verification on whether the accident was suicidal or accidental is in progress, joint CP (crime & traffic) Rupesh Kumar said.
A homicide team, along with a dog squad and mobile DNA teams, has visited the Dey residence. “We have collected evidence from the three spots where the women’s bodies were found,” said Madhumita Barua, a forensic expert. Only one penknife has so far been recovered from the scene, sources added.
Preliminary investigations revealed that some visitors, who had come to visit the Deys after 5.30pm on Tuesday did not get any response from inside. CCTV footage has also captured the Dey brothers taking out the car from their garage and driving away after midnight (around 12.54am on Wednesday). The footage shows the brothers and the boy get into the car and drive off. Pranay was visibly unstable in the footage. “We are checking where the car went after it left the house, till the crash,” an officer said.
The Deys had shifted from Christopher Road 25 years ago after Pranay’s and Prasun’s father bought a plot and constructed the four-storey house. One of the most affluent families in the area, they own three cars and a motorcycle. The two brothers always moved together, whether on bike or in car. Shocked neighbours could not recall any public argument between family members.
At the Protective Leather Gloves Pvt Ltd factory, run by the Dey brothers at Seal Lane in Tangra — a few hundred metres from their residence — shocked employees said they had seen the labour strength dropping significantly after 2020, though salaries were provided on time. They said they had noticed the brothers worried and distracted in the past month or so. On Tuesday morning, several “well-built men” gathered outside the factory for over an hour, but left without entering, as the brothers had left in the morning, some reported. At least one business partner, Manoj Gupta, also told police that he went to the house on Tuesday evening but no one answered him. KMC sources said the Deys had not renewed their trade licence for two years.
