4 killed in Rangpur: One bhori of gold recovered, where is the rest? What police say

Police have yet to trace a large portion of the gold jewellery allegedly stolen after four members of the same family, including retired teacher Ganapati Chakraborty, were killed in Machuapara of Rangpur city.

According to police, suspects Siddhartha Das and Mugdha Das took six to seven bhori of gold jewellery after the killings.

Based on information provided by the suspects, 1 bhori 5 ana of gold jewellery has been recovered.

Police have so far found no information about where the rest of the gold went.

Deputy Commissioner of the Detective Branch (DB) of Rangpur Metropolitan Police Sanatan Chakraborty, who is overseeing the case, told Prothom Alo that 1 bhori 5 ana of gold jewellery was recovered by digging up the ground based on the suspects’ confessions.

Several generations of Siddhartha Das’s family have been involved in making gold jewellery.

The day after the killings, Siddhartha and Mugdha were seen moving around outside before they were arrested and sent to jail.

“For these reasons, it is not possible to trace or recover the remaining gold,” he said.

When asked about the fact that the suspects’ family is involved in jewellery making and whether that could be related to the failure to recover the remaining gold, DB officer Sanatan Chakraborty did not give a clear answer. He only said that the remaining gold could not be traced.

Alongside the failure to trace the gold, the police account of the motive behind the killings has also changed.

After the killings, the then commissioner of Rangpur Metropolitan Police, Abdul Mabud, initially said at a press briefing that Ganapati was killed after he tried to stop the suspects from using yaba on the rooftop. His wife and daughter were subsequently killed on the stairs leading to the third floor, while his 12-year-old son was killed inside a bedroom while asleep. Police said all four members of the family were killed in the early hours of the morning.

Police later also suggested that robbery was the motive behind the four killings. Abdul Mabud said at the time that the perpetrators had attempted to make the killings look like a robbery.

At a second briefing, Abdul Mabud quoted the suspects’ confessional statements before the court as saying that, on the night of the incident, they had taken eight or nine yaba tablets while sitting on the roof of Ganapati Chakraborty’s house.

After dawn, when Ganapati went to walk on the roof, Siddhartha and Mugdha strangled him with a gamcha. They then killed Ganapati’s wife and daughter one after another on the rooftop. When they later entered the bedroom, his 12-year-old son woke up, and the suspects also strangled him, according to the account.

Now, DB Deputy Commissioner Sanatan Chakraborty, whose unit is investigating the case, says the killings were not triggered by an attempt to stop yaba use. Rather, the suspects’ main objective was to deliberately steal money and gold jewellery from Ganapati Chakraborty’s house.

DB officials said this conclusion about the motive emerged after analysing the two suspects’ confessional statements under Section 164, information obtained during earlier interrogations, and further information gathered from them during questioning at the jail.

Police said there had been rumours in the area that, after retiring as a teacher from Rangpur Zilla School, Ganapati Chakraborty had withdrawn Tk 5 million to Tk 6 million from a bank and kept the money at home.

According to information obtained during questioning at the jail, Siddhartha and Mugdha had planned the burglary at Ganapati’s house based on that information. However, investigators have so far found no trace of the money. Instead, the DB now says Ganapati Chakraborty had not withdrawn any money from a bank before the killings.

DB officer Sanatan Chakraborty said, “We checked three or four accounts that Ganapati Chakraborty had at different banks and found that he had not withdrawn any money from the banks before he was killed.”

According to the DB’s latest findings, Siddhartha and Mugdha first cut the electricity supply to Ganapati’s house on the night of the incident. They then climbed the stairs of a neighbouring building under construction and entered the Chakrabortys’ house through the rooftop.

According to DB investigating officer Jinnat Ali, Ganapati, his wife Pritilata Chakraborty and their two children were sleeping in separate rooms on the second floor.

After hearing a noise in the early hours, Ganapati went to the open rooftop on the third floor, where he was killed by being strangled with a gamcha. Later, when his wife Pritilata and daughter Agami went upstairs via the staircase, they were strangled there. Their 12-year-old son Ayush Chakraborty was also strangled while asleep on the second floor.

DB police said the two suspects remained in the house for some time even after killing all four family members. They took showers, ate dates and cucumber, and opened three wardrobes, ransacking clothes and other belongings in three rooms. Police said they then left with Tk 15,000 and six to seven bhori of gold jewellery.

The DB has collected various pieces of evidence allegedly left behind by the suspects in the rooms and sent them to a forensic laboratory for examination. However, the DB said it has not yet received the forensic reports.

Two suspects have so far been arrested in connection with the killings. Police said both confessed to the murders in statements recorded under Section 164 before a court. However, there are inconsistencies between their statements and information contained in the police accounts given at different times.

On the night of 21 August, the bodies of Ganapati Chakraborty, 65, his wife Pritilata Chakraborty, 50, daughter Agami Chakraborty, 25, and son Ayush Chakraborty, 12, were recovered from their home in Machuapara. Police said all four had been strangled. Neighbours Siddhartha Das and Mugdha Das were later arrested.