A Perfect Murder

I met Mr. Indranil Ghosh, while I was in Kolkata for my college term. I was looking for a room, and my search was finally settled upon a room in his house. The room was on the rooftop and its surroundings were fascinating.

Mr. Indranil Ghosh was a retired Deputy Superintendent of Police in Kolkata Police. He was an old man in his sixties, though he looked strong and heavily built. He had scanty white hair on his head, a stubby white moustache on his wrinkled yet serious face, long and ruddy nose, bulky eyes, tough manly voice and huge palm. A tight slap from his palm on a criminal face would have made them spit out the whole truth. I was warned by my friends not to rent a room in his house as he was known to be the strict landlord. He handed me a list of rules to be followed if I wanted to stay there. It read, no entry in the house after 10 p.m., no smoking and drinking in the house, no girls to be brought and no loud music. I had readily agreed to all the rules as I loved solitude and had no habits of drinking and smoking.

There was a blackberry tree full of berries in the front courtyard of the house, grown up well above the roof. When I entered the room and opened the window, the room got filled with the natural sunlight coming through the blackberry tree’s branches, sounds of birds chirping could be heard, and a pond in the front of the house could be seen from the window.

It had been three months, I was now in friendly terms with Mr. Indranil Ghosh. He was a sweet old man, strict from the outside and soft from the inside, like a coconut. On every evening, he would come up on the roof and behind him came his only servant Ramu carrying a chair for him. Ramu would place the chair under the shade of the blackberry tree’s branches, then go down to bring a table and snacks and tea for him. He would then pour the tea in the cup for him and sit down beside him massaging his knee. Mr. Indranil Ghosh would often offer me tea and snacks whenever he saw me roaming on the roof. Having tea and snacks under the branches of the blackberry tree in the moonlit night under the million stars was something very fascinating.

One evening while drinking tea, I asked Dadu, you must have had some interesting cases in your career.

‘Please tell us about a case you solved, I requested.

‘Yes, tell us, please, ’Ramu requested.

Mr. Indranil Ghosh took a deep breath and said, let me tell you about a case which gave me the promotion, otherwise I would have remained an Inspector till my whole service term.

‘Have you heard of the Hathibari Double Murder?’

‘No, you may not have heard, it is very far away from Kolkata, almost a “six” hour journey, but it happened, of course, a great many years ago.

‘It was 1995. I had the charge of the Hathibari Police Station.

A man in his early forties came to report about his missing wife. It had been 5 days since she was missing. He looked very tensed and grief-stricken.

‘What’s your name?’ I asked.

Mr. Projjwal Sengupta, he replied.

And what’s your wife’s name, who was missing, I asked.

Mrs. Promila Sengupta, he said.

‘So, Mr. Sengupta, can you thoroughly explain what exactly happened?’ I asked.

He began saying, I had to leave for Howrah to bring a lot of readymade garments for my garment shop in Hathibari Market. I told my wife about my business trip and said it would take five days to complete my work. She agreed and said she was also planning to go to her friend’s home for a ceremony. She said she would leave for her friend’s house the day I had to leave for Howrah. She also said our servant Mr. Das was asking for leave as he wanted to go to his village to see his ailing father, so we can also give him leave for 5 days. I agreed to her idea. It was 5 days ago when Mr. Das came to work in the morning, my wife told him not to come for the next 5 days as we will not be there in the house. After he went, my wife said she would go to her friend’s house in the evening after I had left. I took the train from the local railway station to Howrah at 3 p.m.

When I returned today from Howrah, I found the gate of the house closed. She was supposed to return today, before me. I dialed her friend from the nearby P.C.O and asked about Promila, but she said Promila didn’t come here. I got worried, it was five days now, and if she didn’t go to her friend’s house, then where was she?

‘Don’t you have the keys to the house?’ I asked.

‘No, he replied, the keys to the house were with my wife. But Mr. Das has the key of the main gate of the house.

‘Where does he lives?’ I asked.

‘Nearly, a couple of miles away from my house in the parish, he replied.

I sent a constable to fetch the servant, Mr. Das.

As you know, the basic rule in these cases is to first question the servant of the house.

The constable brought Mr. Das to the Police Station, a dusky, aging man of average height having grey hair, sunken eyes and weary face.

‘Where were you in the last five days?’ I asked.

I went to the village to see my ailing father and returned today, he replied.

‘Do you have the key to Mr. Sengupta’s house?’ I asked.

‘Yes, he replied.

‘What happened, Sir?’ Mr. Das asked, pretended to be very vague and stupid.

‘Mrs. Sengupta is missing, the constable replied.

I left for Mr. Sengupta’s house in the Police Jeep along with two constables, Mr. Sengupta and Servant Das. As we reached, Mr. Das opened the gate, we entered inside the house campus. It was a large campus enclosed by a thick old decaying boundary wall with grass growing all over it and a ramshackle old building inside it. Trees and shrubs had grown all over the ground.

The lock of the main door of the house was broken. When I opened the door and entered, I found the door of the bedroom was also open. It seemed as if someone had robbed in the house. I put on the gloves and alerted everyone not to touch anything. Everything was thrown here and there, the lock of the safe was broken and the jewelries were missing. My eyes stopped at a blood spot on the wall near the door. It looked like someone’s head had been smashed on the wall. I called the forensic team. They collected every evidence and the samples of fingerprint from the crime scene.

‘Who had robbed the house? Where was Mrs. Sengupta? What happened with her?’ These were questions to be solved.

Mr. Sengupta was grief-stricken and was not in a state to talk.

My prime suspect was Mr. Das, so I restricted my inquiries to him as the robbery took place inside the house without breaking the lock of the main gate. This was possible only if someone had the key of the main gate. This was Mr. Das who had the key to the main gate of the house.

‘I asked Mr. Das this question.’

He replied prudently that he don’t know, someone might have jumped over the wall to enter inside the house to keep the crime under wraps from the neighboring people. And I was not in Hathibari for the last 5 days too, he said innocently. I let him go after a beating.

I wanted to gather all the information about my suspect before making any arrest. So, I told one of my constable to get the complete information about Mr. Das. Where was he in the last five days? Was he saying the truth or lying?

‘The next day, the constable informed me that Mr. Das was lying. His father died 2 years ago and the neighbours of Mr. Sengupta have also confirmed that they had seen Mr. Das coming and going out of the house in the last 5 days.

‘Now it was time to make the arrest. I sent two constables to bring him to the Police Station, but he was not in his house. He was caught at the railway station trying to escape. He was brought to the Police Station and in one tight slap from my hand, he accepted the crime of the robbery in Mr. Sengupta’s house. His fingerprint matched with the unruffled sample collected from the crime scene. The jewelries of Mrs. Sengupta were also recovered from the bag he was carrying.  

‘Where is Mrs. Sengupta?’ What did you do with her?’ I asked.

‘I don’t know, Mrs. Sengupta was not in the house when I committed the robbery, he said.

‘But this time he can’t be believed, he was caught lying previously. It seemed as if he had murdered Mrs. Sengupta. I along with my team went to Mr. Sengupta’s house and started searching each and every corner of the house. I found a spade hidden in the bush in the backyard of the house. The soil around it was soft and seemed to have been dug recently. I called my team to dig that place, and there we found Mrs. Sengupta’s body buried deep inside the ground.

Mrs. Sengupta’s body was sent for autopsy. The forensic team collected the spade found from the crime scene.

The autopsy report came after some days. Mrs. Sengupta had sustained severe head injuries, and she died due to suffocation after she was buried in the ground in an unconscious state.

The fingerprint on the spade too matched with the fingerprint of Mr. Das. All the circumstantial evidence was pointing towards Mr. Das. He was taken into judicial custody and the case went for trial. Everyone was convinced that it was Mr. Das who had killed Mrs. Sengupta though he had never accepted that.

This was the first time in my career that someone had not accepted his crime even after getting a tight slap from my hand, and this thing was knocking in my mind. But the case was now for trial, and the further investigation was in my pending tray as there was no lead for any foul play involved. It was a simple case of robbery and murder.

It would have been 15 days since the recovery of Mrs. Sengupta’s body. I got a call from the City Hospital that Mr. Sengupta succumbed to death due to multiple organ failure. I hurried to the hospital, the doctor informed me that 10 days earlier Mr. Sengupta was admitted to the hospital with the attacks of colic, but soon he recovered from one bout of vomiting and diarrhea. He was in the habit of drinking too much and was warned not to consume alcohol. But 2 days earlier he was again admitted with severe abdominal pain, vomiting and diarrhea. This morning, he started vomiting blood and succumbed to death due to multiple organ failure. As there was no one to collect the body, I informed you, Inspector.

I inquired about Mr. Sengupta’s family and came to know that he had a brother who lives in Kolkata and works as a chemist in a pharmaceutical company. He was informed about the death of Mr. Sengupta. The body was sent for the postmortem and nothing suspicious came in the report. He came to collect the body of Mr. Sengupta a day later. He was a man of average height with wary eyes. He received the dead body and after the funeral he went back to Kolkata.

It had been six months now, this case was almost closed, and it was certain that Mr. Das would be convicted.

But there was something more left in the case. One day, I came to know that the property where Senguptas lived was being sold to a builder by his brother. This news alerted me. Some questions started arising in my mind. Mr. Sengupta’s brother was a chemist, he must have had the knowledge of many poisonous chemicals that could have killed a human being without leaving any trace in the blood.

‘Was Mr. Sengupta administered with some poison in the alcohol?’

‘Was Mr. Sengupta killed by his brother for property?’

His wary eyes looked suspicious for the very first time I saw him when he came to collect his brother’s corpse. His face was like a shrewd fox, very cunning. But no matter how clever the criminal is, he does make a mistake.

I restarted the investigation from the property angle. I found that this property was inherited by Mrs. Sengupta from her father. There were rumors that Mr. Sengupta married her just for property. Though she was 5 years older to him, he had proposed to her pretending that he was deeply in love with her and couldn’t live without her.

‘I decided to visit the crime scene to find any new evidence or the lead.’

It was 4 p.m. I left the police station for Mr. Sengupta’s house. To my surprise, I found that shrewd fox, Mr. Sengupta’s brother there. He was taken aback after seeing me. Soon overcoming his emotions, he said, how did you come here, Inspector?

‘I have heard that you are selling this property, I asked.

‘Why don’t you come inside, Inspector? He said, without answering my question.

‘I went inside the house along with him.’

‘Is the case still going on, isn’t it closed?’ He asked while offering me a chair to sit.

‘It’s almost closed, and Mr. Das will be convicted anytime soon, I said.

‘What a crooked man he was?’ He said, clinching his fist.

‘Would you like to have a drink?’ He asked. And before I would have denied it, he was already gone to fetch the drink.

He appeared with two glasses of wine on a tray after some time. He set the tray on a small table that stood between us. He took a glass of wine from the tray and offered it to me, but I had decided I would not take any chance. I quickly took another glass of the wine from the tray and said ‘Cheers’. I waited for him to take a sip of wine, seeing my gaze, he took a small sip.

‘This property was inherited by Mrs. Sengupta, isn’t it?’ I asked, taking a sip of wine.

‘Yes, but I swear to God I was never interested in this property, but being the only relative alive after my brother and his wife’s death, I got the ownership of this property, he said.

‘But why are you in a hurry to sell this property, I asked.

‘Well, Inspector, you know I live in Kolkata, and I won’t be able to look after this property, and, what is more, you know the people of Hathibari, they have already started spreading rumor that this house is haunted and they have seen ghostly apparition of Mrs. Sengupta in this campus. So, I wants to sell off this property before the fake rumor of this house being haunted gets widely spread, he said.

‘Why are you not drinking wine?’ I asked, finishing off my drink.

‘The shrewd fox first hesitated, then he shrugged and drained his glass quickly, swallowing the wine down his throat.

‘Before I would have asked some more questions, the shrewd fox stood up and said could I excuse him for a minute, he needs to go to the washroom, and he left.

It seemed to me that the shrewd fox was rather taking a long time. Meanwhile, I collected a few drops of wine left from his glass in a tube. He came after 5 minutes, mopping his face with a towel. He seemed exhausted, must have tried to vomit what he had swallowed.

‘I stood and asked for permission to leave.’

‘I came back to the police station and sent the sample of wine collected to the pathology lab for testing.’

The next day pathology report came, and it was written that the sample was administered with poison which can kill a human without leaving any trace in the blood.

‘Now, it was time to make the arrest, I along with a constable rushed to Mr. Sengupta’s house in a police jeep. The shrewd fox was not there, we found out that he was admitted to the City Hospital last night with the attacks of colic. We rushed to the hospital, the doctor said Mr. Sengupta’s brother was fine now and could be discharged. I took the shrewd fox in custody and brought him to the Police Station.

‘Why did you drink it?’ I asked the shrewd fox.

‘Drink what?’ The shrewd fox said trying to be innocent.

I gave him a tight slap, and he broke down.

That drink was for you, Inspector, but you avoided that glass of drink very brilliantly. The drink was administered with a sufficient dose of poison that would have killed a human within 10 hours, so I got myself admitted to the hospital even after vomiting the drink immediately. I was afraid, he said.

So, you killed Mr. Sengupta by poisoning for the property, I asked.

‘Yes, he said.

‘Who killed Mrs. Sengupta?’ I asked.

It’s a long story, Inspector, the shrewd fox began saying…..

My brother Projjwal Sengupta had married Promila Sengupta just for her property. He wanted to sell that property and start a new business in Kolkata, but Mrs. Sengupta never agreed to that. It was 12 years of their marriage, but he was still unsuccessful in convincing Mrs. Sengupta to sell that property. One day, he came to my place in Kolkata, he said it was enough now and wanted to get rid of Mrs. Sengupta. He asked for my help to get that property ownership. This would have only be possible if Mrs. Sengupta was dead. So, together we made a plan to kill Mrs. Sengupta.

Mr. Sengupta told me that there was a store room in the house where the servant, Mr. Das, used to keep the instruments required for gardening and ploughing. I told him to dig ground in the backyard of the house using the spade which was kept idle. And then after killing and burying Mrs. Sengupta, replace that spade with the spade last used by the servant, Mr. Das. I gave him gloves and some sleeping pills. He left Kolkata and returned Hathibari determined to execute the plan of murder.

As per the discussion, he made a plan of a five-day trip to Howrah and informed Mrs. Sengupta about it, she agreed, and she said that in the meanwhile she would go to her friend’s house for a ceremony and decided to give Mr. Das five days leave too as he wanted to go to his village to see his ailing father.

A night before leaving for Howrah, he gave Mrs. Sengupta the sleeping pills along with her medicine after dinner. When she was fast asleep, he wore gloves and dug the ground in the backyard of the house with the idle spade kept in the store room. The grave was ready. In the morning when Mr. Das came, she gave him five days leave to go to his village to see his ailing father. When she came back inside the house, Mr. Sengupta was very anxious, he didn’t want to kill her. So, for the last time he tried to convince her to sell that property, but she didn’t agree as usual. He hit her hard in intense fury, her head smashed on the wall near the door, and she fell unconscious. He wore gloves, took her body to the grave and buried her. He washed that spade, kept it back in the store room and took another spade last used by Mr. Das and hides it in the bush near the grave. He then left for Howrah.

After 5 days when he returned, he filed a missing report of Mrs. Sengupta. Luck was in his favour, he had created only one evidence of a spade to make Mr. Das guilty, but the robbery done by Mr. Das in the house made much more circumstantial evidence that went against him in the police investigation.

“I had one more plan in my mind.” The plan of killing Mr. Sengupta. I knew that there were no close relatives alive to claim the property either from Mrs. Sengupta’s side or from Mr. Sengupta’s side except me. So, one day I visited my brother in Hathibari 5 days after the arrest of Mr. Das and recovery of Mrs. Sengupta’s corpse. I had brought two bottles of wine for him. As he was in the habit of drinking, he became very happy and accepted those bottles, unaware of the fact that it were administered with poison. The poison was administered in such an amount that it would kill him in 10 days without leaving any trace in the blood. The poison did its work, and after 10 days I got the news that he was dead.

I got the ownership of the property and Mr. Das was in jail with the charge of Mrs. Sengupta’s murder. Everything happened as per the plan, but you ruined it at the end, Inspector.

‘Finally, the case was solved. I took a deep sigh of relief. ‘What a perfect murder it was?’ If I hadn’t gone to the crime scene that evening, I would have never found out the truth.