Daijiworld Media Network – Barasat
Barasat, Apr 25: In a shocking crime that has gripped West Bengal, a 30-year-old woman was allegedly kidnapped and murdered by a merchant navy officer she had met through social media. The officer, Kaushik Pramanik, was arrested from his apartment in Barasat, North 24 Parganas district, in connection with the crime.
The body of the victim, Riya Dhar, a resident of Nabagram in Murshidabad district, was discovered on April 22 inside a trolley bag dumped in a drain in the Baguihati area by Bidhannagar police. The postmortem report confirmed death due to asphyxiation, indicating she was likely strangled.
According to police sources, CCTV footage led investigators to the Fortune Heights apartment complex in Barasat, where the accused was residing. However, they discovered that Murshidabad police had already taken Pramanik into custody two days earlier in connection with an abduction case filed by Dhar’s husband.
“He lived alone in Fortune Heights and met the woman through social media. The relationship soured, following which the murder took place,” said a senior officer from Bidhannagar police station.
Initial investigations revealed that Pramanik, a divorcee, developed a relationship with Dhar, who was married and had two children. Following tensions in her marital life, Dhar reportedly left her home and began living with Pramanik in his Barasat flat.
Acting on a missing person and abduction complaint filed by Dhar’s husband last month, Murshidabad police had registered a case and arrested Pramanik on Wednesday. “We did not initially know it was a murder case. Only after the woman was identified did we realise he was also the accused in the Bidhannagar murder case,” said a Murshidabad police official.
Police believe that after killing Dhar, Pramanik stuffed her body into a trolley bag, took a cab to Deshbandhu Nagar in Baguihati, and dumped the bag in a drain.
Bidhannagar police have now registered a case of murder and are in the process of transferring it to Nabagram, where the abduction FIR was originally filed. “We will add murder charges against the accused as the investigation progresses,” an officer confirmed.