A 30-year-old woman who was travelling from Jharkhand to Kolkata with her husband and child was shot in their car with her child sitting next to her on a national highway in Howrah’s Bagnan early on Wednesday.
She was declared dead at a hospital in Howrah.
The victim’s name was Riya Kumari, police said. She featured in tele-serials and multiple music videos that were uploaded on YouTube, the police said. She used Isha Alya as her screen name.
Her husband, Prakash Kumar, who identified himself as a “director”, said he had stationed the car along National Highway 16 and stepped out to take a leak when some men came in a “white car” and fled after shooting his wife, the police said.
“Our daughter was feeling hungry. My wife asked me to park the car by the road side so she could blow the hot milk cold and feed our daughter. I stepped out of the car for a minute to take a leak when suddenly I heard my wife calling me ‘babu babu’. I rushed towards the car and saw a few men jump into a white car and flee,” Prakash said on Wednesday.
“We were coming to Kolkata to purchase some costumes for her performance.We are artistes and I have no idea who killed my wife,” he said.
The shooting happened around 6 am at a spot more than 50km away from Kolkata.
Investigators said the woman had been shot in her temple from close proximity.
“The nature of the wound suggests that the bullet hither from close. There were no marks of external injury on the body,” said a senior police officer of Howrah (rural) district.
Subdivisional police officer, Uluberia, SiddharthaDhapola, told reporters outside Rajapur police station: An officer said they had questioned Prakash. “Initially, he said nothing was stolen.But later, he said his wallet had been taken. Several discrepancies have been found in his statements. But that could also be because of trauma. Weare not ruling out anything,” the officer said. “All possible angles are being probed. We have collected the CCTV footage.”
According to Prakash, after his wife was shot, he first tried to seek help at a building where no one responded. Then, he drove further and entered the Rajapur police station area where he found a police vehicle on the highway and sought their help to take his wife to hospital.
The police said they had launched a search for a white car as described by Prakashbut without details it was difficult to trace a white car in along stretch like the national highway.
Kumar said his wife was a “superstar” in Jharkhand while he himself was a “director”.
A forensic team visited the place of the incident and inspected the car in which the woman was shot dead. The police said blood stains were found inside the car and samples were collected by the forensic officials.