Chief minister Mamata Banerjee met the bereaved daughters of Ashok and Rashmita Shah in front of their Bhowanipore home in south Kolkata on Wednesday and announced after a long conversation with them that someone “inside the family” was involved in the twin murders.
“Someone in their relation has done this. Someone has craftily taken advantage…. Police have identified the person. Hopefully that person will be arrested very soon,” Mamata said standing next to Shah’s youngest daughter Disha, who was crying inconsolably.
“This has nothing to do with caste, community, religion or anything. It was purely personal enmity. I can guess at this point that someone inside the family is involved,” Mamata said.
The chief minister made an unscheduled visit to the Shahs’ ground-floor apartment at 73A Harish Mukherjee Road. The couple were found murdered in separate rooms in the apartment on Monday evening.
Accompanying her were ministers Firhad Hakim and Aroop Biswas, Kolkata police commissioner Vineet Goyal and several senior officers of the city police.
Apart from Disha, another daughter of the couple, Sneha, met the chief minister outside their home.
Mamata heard with rapt attention what Disha had to say, sometimes pointing towards the Shahs’ apartment.
After listening to the daughter, the chief minister stepped forward and signalled the police commissioner to join her. They stood a few metres from the daughters and others.
The top cop did most of the talking with his head lowered to the level of the chief minister’s face, apparently to ensure no one overheard their conversation.
As Mamata listened to Goyal with her eyes fixed on the ground and a frown on her face, Disha, who was standing a few metres away, broke down. Someone standing nearby, possibly a relative, wiped her face and tried to console her.
“She is inconsolable. After the marriage of her elder sisters, Disha had been taking care of her parents single-handedly. They (the Shah couple) would often say ‘yeh hamari ladki nahi, ladka hai (she is not our daughter, but our son)’,” said a family friend.
After talking to the police commissioner, the chief minister returned to where Disha and Sneha were standing.
This time, she put her arms around Disha’s shoulder and gestured to her to move forward. Disha broke down again. She walked with Mamata, her eyes brimmed with tears and hands folded. At this Mamata gestured towards councillor Kajari Banerjee.
“Madam (Mamata) told me to expedite matters relating to the succession certificate and asked me if I had Disha’s phone number. She told Disha that she should call me whenever she needed any help,” Banerjee, councillor of Ward 73, told The Telegraph later.
The chief minister, a resident of the same neighbourhood, said she had never seen anything like this happen there in the past. “We all grew up here. It is a peaceful neighbourhood. Those who have come from outside and are trying to create nuisance will not be tolerated. All communities live here together. This incident has nothing to do with communities. It is a personal matter,” Mamata said.