In a horrible incident in Bengaluru, a physiotherapist named Sonali Sen (aged between 35-39 years) murdered her 71-year-old mother, Biva Pal, over a family dispute on Monday. Afterwards, she stuffed her mother’s 40 kg body in a suitcase and reached the Mico Layout police station at around 2 pm on Monday in an autorickshaw and stated, “I have killed my mother. The body is in the suitcase.”
After one of their frequent arguments, she first made her mother swallow 30 Blood Pressure pills before strangling her to death. The accused resided in a first-floor apartment in the NSR Green apartment on Kodichikkanahalli Road in Bilekahalli, Southeast Bengaluru, with her husband Subrotosh Sen who is an electrical engineer, mother-in-law Chaya Rani (70), and seven to nine-year-old son since 2017. Biva Pal who lived in Kolkatta earlier, shifted to her daughter’s place in 2018 after her husband’s death. During the instance, Sonali Sen’s husband was away at work while her mother-in-law and son were in the other room unaware of the gruesome development.
One among the many who “struggled to make sense of it all” was sub-inspector Sanjeev Kumar, who Sonali Sen spoke to first. A police personnel mentioned, “We watched anxiously as the suitcase was opened. Inside was an old lady’s body.” A police officer remembered her as she peacefully stood outside Sanjeev Kumar’s office and witnessed the event unfold. The latter then dialled an ambulance and transported the dead body for an autopsy. Police lodged a First Information Report (FIR) in the case.
In her statement to police, the perpetrator claimed that after killing her mother, she sat next to her corpse for about an hour before deciding to turn herself in. Sonali Sen revealed that arguments with her mother and mother-in-law happened routinely. Her mother out of frustration told her on Sunday night that she would rather die than live such an awful life. She continued the refrain even the following morning.
Sonali Sen gave the pills to Biva Pal at about 7.15 am in a fit of rage and instructed “her to swallow it in one go and watched in silence” as the latter took all of them. “She fell on the bed and was semi-conscious. I thought she would die. She was breathing, but it was laboured. Finally, I took my dupatta and strangled her,” she disclosed to the police.
According to preliminary police investigations, Sonali Sen strangled her mother with a dupatta on Monday between 11 and 11.30 am. After placing a picture of her father inside the trolley suitcase carrying the body, she subsequently left at 1 pm for the police station where she surrendered. “Prima facie, we have learnt that there were some differences within the family. So, the accused woman killed her mother by strangulation. She brought the body to the police station because she didn’t want her family to face any issues,” said C K Baba, Deputy Commissioner of Police (East).
“I am unsure of the motive behind the murder. She must be taken into custody by us. She has taken physiotherapy courses. There might have been some domestic problems. The victim had a few medical conditions. When the murder occurred, her mother-in-law and her child were also present in the house but in a different room,” he noted.
Sanjeev Gurappa Gol, a sub-inspector, made a complaint, after which the Mico Layout police station opened a suo motu murder case. After an investigation, more information will become available, the top cop added. Sonali Sen is the only child of Biva Pal, per the senior official. The family is from Kolkata. She took her mother to her Bengaluru residence after her father passed away five years ago.
Over the past two to three years, Sonali’s mother Biva Pal and mother-in-law Chaya Rani have argued frequently. The altercation between the two senior citizens worried Sonali Sen. She was also troubled by her son who was receiving treatment for his hyperactivity. The two elderly ladies engaged in a fight on Sunday about minor issues. Afterwards, the mother and daughter discussed the same in the evening.
Biva Pal allegedly told her daughter that the only way the problems would be resolved was for her to pass away. She urged the latter to send her to her father and give her the tablets. Sonali Sen made the decision to murder her mother after considering it all night.
Sonali Sen locked her up after giving her about 30 BP medications. She subsequently went to check on her and discovered her writhing with paralysis signs. She didn’t want her mother to suffer and hence strangled the woman with a dupatta, based on police accounts. She informed the police that she put the body in a suitcase and hired an auto without alerting her mother-in-law.
She informed the police that she chose to turn herself in because she didn’t want her husband or her family to face any consequences as a result of the occurrence. Sonali Sen has been taken into custody for two days as police look into her assertions. Sanjeev Kumar also called her husband and informed him about the entire incident.
