A 20-year-old mason, Utpal Behera, was arrested in connection with the triple murders in Murshidabad’s Jiaganj seven days after the incident.
The gruesome murders became a political issue as the Bharatiya Janata Party leaders claimed and even took to Twitter to say that the murdered person – teacher, Bandhu Prakash Pal – was a member of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). Pal had been murdered along with his wife and six-year-old son.
State BJP chief Dilip Ghosh along with Mukul Roy and Kailash Vijayvargiya had claimed that Pal was an RSS member. However, regional RSS spokesperson Biplab Roy said that Pal was not the organisation member.
On Monday, the arrested person, Utpal Behera, had confessed to the crime, police said. He is a resident of Sahapur village in Sagardighi, where the murdered teacher Bandhu Prakash Pal has an ancestral house. Both knew each other for some years, police said.
Pal worked as an insurance broker for several companies. Police said that Behera confessed he had murdered Pal and his family due to a major discord over a financial transaction in which he had invested. Behera had paid Rs. 24,000 per year as premium for a policy for two years.
He told police that he had received receipts for the payment for the first year only while Pal had not given him receipts for the second year. Behera and his father had talked to Pal several times on this but it didn’t work. This led to a quarrel between them.
Behera grew restless and called up Pal, who had on one occasion verbally abused him. A furious Behera then decided to take revenge. During interrogation, Behera said that he went to his sister’s house in Jiaganj on October 3 and bought the weapon he used for the murder, from a shop by the railway station.
On October 7, he located the house and the following day, he called up Pal and asked to meet him, to which he readily agreed. On reaching the house, when Pal opened the door for him, as he turned, Behera pounced on him from behind.
Then he went inside the house to murder Beauty, Pal’s wife and their son, Arya.
Police said that the incident took place between 12.06 pm and 12.11 pm. Behera initially tried to mislead police saying he was in Sagardighi during this time, but checking his mobile phone call lists and CCTV footage confirmed that Behera had visited Jiaganj around that time.
