On 14th December, Kolkata Police arrested a man named Atiur Laskar for killing his sister-in-law, Khadeja Bibi. Laskar, who works as a daily labourer, reportedly killed Khadeja and dismembered her body after she rejected his advances. The dismembered body was recovered on 13th December from a garbage dump. Laskar has been booked for her murder. According to media reports, Atiur Rahman Laskar confessed to killing his sister-in-law and cutting the body into three pieces before dumping them.
The case was solved by the police within 24 hours. The police reviewed CCTV footage and identified the person who dumped the severed head in the garbage. Relevant samples were collected from the scene. Injury marks and blood stains indicated that the murder had taken place 12 hours prior to the discovery of the body. Police used sniffer dogs to trace the body parts, and the dogs led them to an apartment a kilometre away from the scene.
During the investigation, the police found that it was Atiur Laskar who had killed the woman. Laskar was arrested from his native village, Basuldanga, in Diamond Harbour, South 24 Parganas. Reports suggest that Khadeja worked as a domestic help in the Tollygunge area of South Kolkata. She had been living separately from her husband for the past two years. She used to commute with Laskar daily for work in Tollygunge. Laskar wanted to have a relationship with her, but she rejected his advances and distanced herself from him a week ago. Enraged by Khadeja’s refusal, on 12th December, Laskar forced her to accompany him to an under-construction building, where he strangled and beheaded her. He then cut her body into three pieces and disposed of them at different locations.
Speaking to the media, Deputy Commissioner of Kolkata Police (South Suburban Division), Bidisha Kalita, said, “Khadeja Bibi worked as a housemaid, and her brother-in-law, Atiur Laskar, pursued her. When she started avoiding him, he killed her.”
DCP Kalita further added that the accused had confessed to the crime. She said, “She began avoiding him a week ago, which intensified his rage. She also blocked his phone number. On Thursday evening, after finishing work, he forced her to accompany him to an under-construction building. There, he strangled her, beheaded her, and dismembered the body into three parts, which he dumped in different locations. The accused carried the dismembered body parts in sacks. He has confessed to the crime, and we are in the final stages of the investigation.”
Laskar was taken to the crime scene to reconstruct the chain of events. The police recovered the remaining body parts during the reconstruction. The head was reportedly dumped in a garbage dump on Graham’s Road, while the other two body parts were thrown away by Laskar behind a house.
Further investigation into the matter is underway.