The anaesthetist, who had been beaten up along with his wife allegedly by their driver on Monday evening, said on Tuesday that the accused was a habitual gambler and had demanded money from the couple in the past also.

On Monday evening, the accused Tapan Das had allegedly beaten doctor Subrata Nag, 62, and wife Mousumi, 58, with a bamboo stick after they had refused to give him a month’s salary in advance. Mousumi succumbed to the injuries later at night.

“The driver recently lost around Rs 2 lakh in gambling and had demanded Rs 1 lakh from us,” said Nag. “He has come to our home in such a state earlier as well. Yesterday evening, it was clear he planned to kill us. When we told him about our inability to give them the amount, he began hitting me and then my wife, who later died,” Nag added, who was released from a private hospital on Tuesday.

“I want the strictest punishment to the killer of my wife. Despite his misbehaviour, my wife had forgiven him on several occasions. And he killed her,” said Nag. On Tuesday, Das was produced in the chief judicial magistrate’s court in Burdwan and remanded in five days’ police custody.

Nag said he had lodged a complaint against Das with Burdwan police a few days after Durga Puja for threatening him. The police, however, denied the claim, saying they had no such records.

Sources said Nag had been an anaesthetist at the Burdwan Medical College and Hospital and had taken voluntary retirement a few years earlier to practise abroad.