GUWAHATI: In a spine-chilling incident, a trainer at a gym in Guwahati was found to have killed her husband and mother-in-law in a course of two months last year. This case holds an uncanny resemblance to the Shraddha Walker murder case in Delhi last year.
The prime accused and mastermind in the case, Bandana Kalita, was arrested in Guwahati on Sunday for killing her husband and mother-in-law, dismembering them and then gradually disposing of the body parts in Meghalaya along with two of her accomplices.
This may be mentioned that even though the incident has some resemblance to the Shraddha Walker murder case, the date of occurrence of the crime in Guwahati was long before the case of Shraddha Walker came to light.
In a press meeting held today in Guwahati, the Commissioner of Police, Guwahati, Diganta Barah said, "There is no mention of the use of a refrigerator in the case. We have no proof if the dismembered body parts were stored in a refrigerator or not."
On August 29, 2022, Bandana (31) filed a missing complaint at the Noonmati Police Station against her husband, Amarjyoti Dey (32) and mother-in-law Shankari Dey (62).
On the basis of the complaint the Noonmati Police registered a report, Report No 56/22 dated August 29, 2022, and carried out an investigation into the matter but failed to trace their whereabouts.
Three months later, an FIR was lodged on November 21, 2022, by Shankari Dey’s nephew, Nirmalya Dey (42), a resident of Udalbakra, Dispur alleging that Bandana had withdrawn money from his aunt’s bank account via an ATM after the persons had gone missing. He had suspected that the missing persons could have been abducted instead.
Subsequently, the Noonmati Police Registered the case, Case No.480/22 u/s 365/382 IPC and an investigation was carried out into the matter.
Ironically, Bandana had been meeting with the police officials and requesting them to expedite the investigation process and help trace the whereabouts of her husband and mother-in-law.
On February 14, 2023, Bandana also met the Commissioner of Police, Guwahati and complained about inaction on the part of Noonmati Police in tracing out the missing persons.
Meanwhile, on the same day, (February 14, 2023) Nirmalya Dey met the Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIGP) of CID, Assam and requested to expedite the investigation of the case registered in Noonmati Police Station regarding the suspected abduction of the duo.
The DIGP and CID passed on the information to Guwahati Police to look into the investigation of the case. The missing report and the abduction case were reviewed and a Special Team under the ADCP(Central District), Guwahati was entrusted to carry out further investigation into the said missing report as well as the abduction case.
The Occurrence Of The Crime
Bandana Kalita and Amarjyoti Dey have married 12 years ago against the wishes of both their families but the post-marital relationship between the two could not exactly be termed as cordial.
Amarjyoti was unemployed because of this there were tiffs between him and Bandana. Bandana worked in a Call Centre for two years and was the sole breadwinner of the family, initially.
Eventually, Amarjyoti’s mother accepted their marriage and started supporting them financially to help ease the burden.
Bandana soon after took up training to be a fitness trainer with her mother-in-law initially supported her but later the mother-in-law backed out and did not support her in her chosen profession so Bandana’s relationship with her mother-in-law turned sour.
As per Bandana’s version, her husband Amarjyoti Dey’s lifestyle was also of a different nature where he used to take addictive substances. Amarjyoti allegedly also maintained multiple friendships with other women.
As a result of the deteriorating relationship with her husband and mother-in-law, Bandana conspired to kill both of them and accordingly, with the help of her close associates Arup Deka and Dhonti Deka put her plans into action.
On July 26, 2022, at around 5 PM, while Shankari Dey was sitting on the sofa at her Chandmari residence, Bandana smothered her with a pillow while Arup held her legs causing Shankari to die due to a lack of oxygen.
After the murder, Bandana Kalita and Arup cut the body of the deceased into three pieces.
Bandana put a rolling pin under the head of the deceased mother-in-law and beheaded her using a machete while Arup cut off the hands from the body.
Dhonti Deka, who was on the lookout outside the house, was asked to bring in polythene bags to dispose of the body.
The mutilated body was stuffed in polythene bags and at around 3 AM of July 27, 2022, the three of them left for Meghalaya in Dhonti’s car at around 10 AM of the same day, the body parts were wrapped in a blanket and plastic sheet and thrown at a deep gorge located in a village called Aliangriat under the Sohra Police Station in Meghalaya.
The head, one hand, one machete and the rolling pin were also disposed of at different locations.
Similarly on August 17, 2022, during the evening hours, while Amarjyoti was at his flat located at Narengi (the flat where Bandana also resides in), Bandana along with Dhonti and Arup attacked Amarjyoti with a rod.
Amarjyoti succumbed to his injuries in the attack and his body too was chopped into 5 pieces.
On August 18, 2022, at around 3 AM, the trio stuffed the mutilated body in plastic bags and drove off to Meghalaya where they disposed of the body on Dawki Road.
The Breakthrough
Initially, not much headway was made in the case but after the Special team examined Bandana and Nirmalya again, numerous inconsistencies were found in her versions of the case which raised a level of suspicion against her.
The Special Team carried out a series of vigorous interrogations over a period of two days, in Bandana and eventually, she confessed to the commission of the crime.
She also disclosed the names of her associates who were her accomplices in committing the double homicide.
Accordingly, the co-accused namely Dhonti Deka was arrested from Tinsukia with the help of Tinsukia Police and Arup Deka was arrested from Khanapara and put to intensive interrogation and both confessed to the commission of the offences.
Recovery and Seizures
The Special Team after having come to know about the whereabouts of the dead bodies/remnants of the dead bodies swung into action and the trio were taken to the spots where the body parts of the two persons had been thrown overboard.
The team with the help of Meghalaya Police searched the gorges located at Aliangriat under the Sohra Police Station in Meghalaya.
Eventually, the team managed to trace the mortal remains of Shankari Dey. The same was brought to Guwahati for a post-mortem.
Other seizures include:
1. Two mobile phones belonging to Bandana Kalita and Dhonti Deka
2. Dhonti Deka's vehicle bearing Reg. No. AS-01-JC-5795 (Hyundai Accent)
3. ATM Cards of Shankari Dey
4. ATM card of Amarjyoti Dey
5. Tattered clothes and a blanket of Shankari Dey (recovered at Sohra)
Also Read: Shoot Her If Found Guilty, Says Father Of Prime Accused In Guwahati Double Murder Case