india

Updated: Oct 15, 2019 00:29 IST

Six days after school teacher Prakash Pal, his pregnant wife and their six-year-old son were killed in their home at Jiaganj in Bengal’s Murshidabad district, relatives of the woman said they suspect Pal’s business partner Souvik Banik alias Deep of committing the murders.

Banik is still being interrogated by the police.

On Monday, police summoned some relatives of Pal and his wife, Beauty. Some of them were quizzed separately while some were questioned in presence of each other.

Beauty’s father Sukhen Mondal came to Jiaganj police station for the first time.

“The investigators spoke to my wife earlier. I firmly believe that Banik is the mastermind behind the murders. He was the business partner of my son-in-law. Banik has duped many people. I believe that the murders are connected to some monetary transaction. The truth will come out if the police interrogate Banik properly,” he told reporters.

Referring to the handwritten note purportedly written by Beauty, which the police found in the house, her father said, “I have not seen the note but I heard that it talks of strained relationship between the couple. I suspect that someone held a gun to her head and made her write it. We never knew of any major dispute between my daughter and her husband.”

Beauty’s brother Biswajit Mondal said, “If there was any quarrel between the two then Banik must have been the cause. My sister told her husband to ask Banik to repay the sum of Rs 7 lakh that he borrowed from him.”

Significantly, police have also come to know that there were major differences between Pal and his two step sisters and their husbands.

“Pal’s father has been living in Birbhum district ever since his second marriage from which he has two daughters,” an investigating officer said.

“The husband of Pal’s younger stepsister does not have any fixed source of income. Around two years ago there was a legal dispute between Pal and his stepsisters and their husbands over property. We are probing these aspects,” the officer added.

The BJP had claimed that Prakash Pal was a Rashtriya Shayamsevak Sangh (RSS) activist and the murder was an act of political vendetta.