Pabitra Debnath at Alipore court on Thursday Gautam Bose

Rupam Samaddar at Alipore court on Thursday Gautam Bose

A 34-year-old woman and two men have been arrested in connection with the robbery at the doctor’s house in Haridevpur and the assault on the doctor’s daughter and their help on Wednesday.

The woman accused, Oindrila Roy, 34, is the daughter of doctor Arup Das’s brother-in-law. The men who have been rounded up are Rupam Samaddar, 39, Oindrila’s friend, and Pabitra Debnath, an alleged petty criminal.

Police said Oindrila had been demanding Rs 19 lakh from the doctor to settle down in Canada. According to her purported statement before the police, Oindrila had planned to rob Das’s three-storey house because he refused to pay her the money.

Oindrila and a man, who the police said was Pabitra, allegedly hit Das’s daughter Shalmoli on her head with a hammer after forcing her to share the code of the lock on their safe and fled with Rs 2.5 lakh and gold ornaments. The two also allegedly attacked the domestic help when she tried to resist them.

Shalmoli and the help were admitted to the intensive care unit of CMRI hospital in a critical condition.

The police said Oindrila and Rupam were arrested from in front of her home in Champahati, South 24-Parganas, early on Thursday, when they were returning from Calcutta. “The woman was wearing new clothes which she said she had bought from Metropolis Mall on EM Bypass,” an officer said.

Oindrila is suspected to have changed into the new clothes after dumping her blood-stained clothes in a garbage vat. “The two had initially feigned ignorance but later confessed to the crime,” the officer said.

Based on their statement, the police picked up Pabitra from his house, also in South 24-Parganas.

Oindrila and Rupam, a clerk at a city court, had allegedly hired Pabitra to help them implement the plan. “They had purchased a hammer to kill the occupants of the house,” the officer said.

“Oindrila said their plan was to kill whoever was in the house to ensure they were not caught. They were under the impression that Shalmoli and the help had died when they left.”

While Pabitra had accompanied Oindrila to the house, Rupam was keeping a watch from outside, the officer said.

The police came to know that Oindrila and Pabitra had pressed the doorbell around 1.30pm. The help answered the door, welcomed them and went to the kitchen to bring them water. Before she could return with water, Oindrila and Pabitra had attacked her with a hammer on her head.

“They kept hitting her till she passed out. The woman and her associate thought that she was dead,” said joint commissioner (crime) Murlidhar Sharma.

When Shalmoli, who was upstairs, rushed down hearing the help’s screams, the duo overpowered her and forced her to reveal the code of the safe lock. “Once they accessed the locker, Pabitra hit her on the head with the hammer. She, too, passed out and they thought she had died,” Sharma said.

A Class X drop-out, Oindrila lived with her paralytic father and housewife mother at Champahati.

The police said the woman, a divorcee, had worked at a call centre for a few days and tried doing odd jobs before she started planning to move abroad for a living.

“Around 15 days ago, she had gone to the Das house and sought Rs 19 lakh. When the family told her they were not in a position to pay the money, she started plotting how to rob the house. She thought she would get between Rs 60 lakh and Rs 70 lakh in the house,” an officer of Haridevpur police station said.

After fleeing the spot with Rs 2.5 lakh and gold ornaments, Rupam and Oindrila had parted ways with Pabitra and roamed across the city. According to their statement, they went to Metropolis Mall and bought clothes.

The three have been charged under IPC sections related to attempt to murder, robbery and common intention.