A woman died while three others in her family, including a mentally challenged girl, were injured in an attack carried out by a youth from Jharkhand here on Friday early morning.
Police have arrested the accused but are yet to ascertain the motive behind the attack.
Sources said a few months back, Vivek Singh, a resident of Jharkhand, was introduced to Soma Acharya, a homemaker at Surya Sen Pally in Chechakhata of Alipurduar Junction, via social media.
Singh had visited her house some times and on Friday too, he dined with the Acharya family.
Around 1.30am, Vivek knocked on the house while the family members were sleeping. As they didn't respond, Vivek broke the door open and walked in, carrying a wooden plank in his hand.
He then attacked the family members, Soma, her husband Ashim, Sneha, their 17-year-old daughter who is mentally challenged, and Pritilata, Ashim's mother, and hit their heads with the plank.
Ashim raised an alert and some neighbours woke up. They rushed to his house, seeing all four bleeding profusely. Vivek fled the spot.
The neighbours took the four to the district hospital in Alipurduar where doctors pronounced his mother, who was 70 years old, dead. The other three were shifted to a private nursing home in Cooch Behar.
After the incident, Vivek turned up at the house to check out the conditions of the family members. Some local people, who were on alert, intercepted him and tied him to a tree. Police were informed and a team from the Alipurduar police station reached the spot and arrested him.
“We have arrested the attacker. Our officers are trying to find out the motive behind the attack that has led to a death. He will be produced in the court tomorrow,” said Y. Raghuvamshi, the superintendent of police of Alipurduar.
Bangladeshi held
Md Kawsar Hossain, a 19-year-old from the Patuakhali district of Bangladesh, was nabbed by the BSF on Thursday evening while he was illegally trying to enter Bangladesh from the Cooch Behar side of India. Sources said he had gone to Nepal in May in search of a job and was returning to Bangladesh to meet his family.
