KOLKATA: A day after an 81-year-old woman and her two daughters jumped from the tallest apartment of the city, police have solved most of the missing links that initially puzzled them. Police believe that the three had chalked out the suicide plan in detail, long before going to the hospital to collect Nihar Mukherjee ’s body. The motive of the suicide is, however, not yet known.

On Saturday, Mukuta Mukherjee ’s cousin claimed the three bodies for their last rites.

After preliminary investigation, police ruled out foul play behind the triple deaths. Circumstantial evidence suggests that all the three – Amita, Mukuta and Kheya – committed suicide by jumping off the terrace of the 34-storey tower of South City. Amita and her daughter Kheya in fact waited inside South City apartment for more than three hours for Mukuta to return after cremating her father’s body.

There were some vital questions which remained unanswered till Friday night. The vehicle register at the entrance to the complex showed that the car used by the Mukherjees had entered the premises more than once in the hours preceding their suicide. CCTV footage confirmed that one of the family members boarded the elevator at 11.47pm. Then why did the car enter the complex at 7.57pm when the first entry is recorded? The entire sequence of events, however, helped in solving the mystery.

Police found that on Thursday evening, Mukuta, Kheya and Amita went to Rabindranath Tagore International Institute of Cardiac Sciences along with four other friends to collect Nihar’s body. All the four who had accompanied the family were from the table tennis circuit since both sisters played the game.

After collecting the body, Mukuta, Kheya and Amita boarded their own car as did Rabindra Nath Chatterjee, a friend who is popular as a sports mentor. Kheya was at the wheel. Nihar’s body was in the hearse and three other friends followed in another car. They all started from the hospital at Mukundapur off EM Bypass around 7pm and headed towards the crematorium.

On the way, Mukuta, Kheya and Amita told Chatterjee that they did not wish to go to the crematorium. But when Chatterjee insisted that they do, Mukuta agreed to accompany her father’s body. “Chatterjee and Mukuta got off the car near South City and took a cab to Keoratola, leaving Kheya and Amita in the car. The duo, along with the three friends in the other car, reached the crematorium around 8.30pm. Chatterjee signed on the register at the crematorium.

When the cremation was over a couple of hours later, Mukuta was handed over the ‘asthhi-kalas’ or earthen pot containing the ashes to immerse in the river. But she refused to immerse it there and the five left for Babughat. After immersing the ‘kalas’ at around 11pm, Mukuta asked the friends to drop her near South City. Accordingly, they dropped her off opposite the condominium complex around 11.40pm, Chatterjee told investigators from his Kalighat residence. Indrajit Banga, another friend present at the time of cremation also confirmed the fact.

From the account, police deduced that Kheya and Amita had first entered South City at 7.57pm and then left to either drive around the neighbourhood to kill time or went to their house in Golf Green to collect the green bag that contained documents like the bank passbook, Voter ID card, pan card and cash certificates. The duo then returned to South City at 10.12pm when the second entry was recorded at the gate.

Kheya and Amita waited somewhere at the premises, probably in the car itself, for Mukuta to return. When she did, the mother and her two daughters made an entry in the register at 11.45pm and took the elevator to the top floor. Police suspect that when one of them was busy writing the names in the security register, the other two walked ahead. Hence, the footage does not capture all the three of them together.

But the motive behind the suicide pact still remains unsolved. Police are also not able to conclude how an octogenarian could first agree to commit suicide and climb on top of the terrace wall to jump down 35 stories. Police are, however, convinced that between 11.45pm and 2.30am, the trio were cooped up in the terrace and were perhaps preparing themselves mentally for the death plunge.

“We have solved most of the unanswered questions. Only a few minor details are yet to be verified,” joint CP crime Pallav Kanti Ghosh said.