KOLKATA: A car crash on EM Bypass early 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 in Kolkata’s Tangra has left police sniffing a suicide pact, even though they have also lodged a murder complaint.
Police suspect the family members were driven to take the extreme step after failing to recover from Covid-time losses in their leather goods manufacturing trade. The family lived jointly in a four-storey house. The chain of events, at least the public part of it, began at 3.35am near Avishikta crossing, when a sedan – occupied by Prasun Dey, 45, Pranay Dey,44, and Pratip Dey,14, Pranay’s son – dashed into a pillar at 100kmph, smashing the vehicle beyond recognition. Miraculously, all the three occupants were alive, and taken to hospital.
The next link of the macabre chain fell into place 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 Rupesh Kumar told TOI. Pranay said the family had consumed payesh (a traditional dessert) laced with sedatives in order to die, and some of them also inflicted injuries on themselves. He said the three of them then set out in the car to die by suicide. Pratip was sitting in rear seat with his father, while his brother was driving.
Cops 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. Police surmise that the car crash was deliberate, part of a suicide pact between the six members of the family.