4 members of teacher's family killed for barring killers from taking drugs: Police

The police have provided new information about the murder of retired teacher Ganapati Chakraborty of Rangpur District School, his wife and two children. Police say that four members of the family were killed after the accused became angry at being stopped from taking drugs. 

The two arrested in the incident have confessed to their involvement in the murder during interrogation, police said.

The officer-in-charge (OC) of the police station, AKM Nazmul Quader, gave this information at a press conference at Rangpur Kotwali Police Station on Sunday afternoon. 

The two arrestees are Mughdah Das, 25, and Siddharth Das, 28. They are residents of the same area.

According to the police, Mughdah and Siddharth climbed onto the roof of Ganapati Chakraborty’s house on Saturday night and used drugs. Upon learning of the matter, Ganapati went to the roof and stopped them from taking drugs. An argument broke out between them over this. At one stage, the two entered the teacher’s house and abused him and his family members. Later, they killed four members of the family and left with various belongings.

OC Nazmul Quader said that information about the murder was obtained during interrogation of the two detainees. The information given by them is being verified. It is being investigated whether anyone else is involved in the murder.

Earlier, at around 3:30 am on Saturday, the police recovered the bodies of Ganapati Chakraborty (retired teacher), his wife Pritilata Chakraborty and their two children Agami Chakraborty and Ayush Chakraborty from a house in Kamal Kachna Machhuapara area of Rangpur city. 

The bodies have been sent for autopsy. Preparations for a case are underway in this incident.

After talking to the police and relatives, it was learned that four members of the family lived on the second floor of the house. Construction work was going on on the first and third floors.

When the police entered the house, they first found Ayush’s body in a bedroom. A cloth was wrapped around his neck. Then, the bodies of Pritilata and her daughter Agami Chakraborty were found on the stairs to the third floor. 

Both of them had ropes around their necks. The body of Ganapati Chakraborty was found on the roof of the third floor. A towel was wrapped around his neck.

The initial police assumption is that the four people were strangled to death. The CID said that their faces were slightly burned. It is being investigated whether any chemical substance was used on their faces.

Rangpur CID Assistant Superintendent of Police Sumit Chowdhury said that it is believed that the killers killed the four people by staying inside the house for a long time. 

It is also being investigated whether the miscreants entered the house for the purpose of robbery and committed the murder. Efforts are being made to confirm this through a proper investigation into the murder.

Pooja Chakraborty, the younger sister of the deceased Pritilata Chakraborty, said that she spoke to her elder sister Pritilata and niece Agami Chakraborty at 11:26 pm on Thursday. After talking for about 9 minutes and 46 seconds, she fell asleep. At around 2:40 am, she received a call from Pritilata’s mobile phone. She was asleep and could not answer the call.

Then on Friday, Pooja called her sister, brother-in-law and niece’s mobile phones several times but did not get a response. She became suspicious when she found all the phones switched off in the afternoon. At around 8:45 pm, she went to her sister’s house from her house in the city’s fire service area.

Seeing the main gate of the house locked, she rang the calling bell. When no one responded from inside, she went to the window from the side of the building. When she broke the lock of the glass and shone light inside, she saw the belongings of one room in a state of disarray. She later informed the police.

Police said that the cupboards and drawers of three rooms in the building were open. Clothes, toys and other belongings were scattered on the floor and bed. 

However, no cupboards or drawers were broken. 

The police believe that they were opened with a key. Several sets of keys were also recovered from the scene. However, the miscreants did not take the television, laptop and mobile phone in the house. 

Police are yet to confirm whether there was money or jewellery in the cupboards and drawers. 

The deceased, Agami Chakraborty, had a post-graduate degree in English from Rangpur Carmichael College. His brother, Ayush Chakraborty, was a fifth-grade student of Rangpur Zilla School.