Charred bodies of mother-daughter duo, Ria Dey and Rama Dey, were recovered from the banks of a river in Haldia, West Bengal on 18 February. After extensive investigations, alleged lover of deceased Ria De, Sheikh Saddam Hussein and accomplice Sheikh Manjur were taken into custody. Saddam has confessed to the crime after being interrogated by West Bengal Police.
Ria Dey and Rama Dey were residents of New Barrackpore area. Sheikh Saddam Hussain, a resident of Durgachauk area, is a contractor by profession and a married man with children. He soon started a romantic affair with Ria Dey. As per police, Saddam had hidden the truth of his marriage from Ria and given her false assurances of marriage also. The girl’s mother Rama Dey was aware of this association.
But even after a prolonged courtship, Saddam showed no signs of planning on marriage. The mother-daughter duo then started coaxing him for marriage, which made Saddam irate and he ended up planning and executing their murder.
As per his plan, Sheikh Saddam Hussain and his companion Sheikh Manjur invited Ria and her mother Rama to live in a house at Durgachauk Hospital road, Haldia. They laced their dinner with drugs which rendered both Rai and Rama unconscious. Saddam and Manzil then dragged them to the bank of a river and set them ablaze.
The twin burning bodies attracted the attention of locals in the morning who tried to put off the fire, but both mother and daughter were dead by then. Their bodies were charred beyond recognition by the time police came in. The police sent the bodies for post-mortem and it was established that the bodies were not burnt after death but were set ablaze while alive.
As per reports, the police officers of East-Medinapore Police Station had nothing apart from some green-golden hair strands on one of the dead bodies and a pair of earrings in the shape of the Swastika as initial cues. They observed that these earrings had ‘SJP’ and ‘KDM’ etched on them. They made use of social media and invited leads from the public. After receiving many calls they identified the owner of the said earrings as the mother-daughter duo of New Barrackpore area.
Neighbours confirmed that the two had not been home since 4-5 days. They also provided the police with their phone numbers from which the last traceable location of the De mother-daughter duo was found to be Haldia. The call list was investigated and it was observed that the last calls made from the number were the night prior to the dead bodies being recovered. The call list also guided the police to trace out Saddam.
When the police located him, he was admitted in hospital with a bandage around his hand. Under interrogation, Saddam Hussein broke down and admitted his crime. He confessed that he was fed up with the pressure for marriage and decided on getting rid of Ria and Rama.
Residents of Durgachak identified Saddam and Manjur as “active Trinamul workers”, a claim the police refused to corroborate. Independent citizen activists from Bengal have confirmed that the main accused has links with powerful TMC leaders.
Be it Kader Khan of #Parkstreet or Saddam Hossien of Haldia Muslim rapists know that they have protection of TMC ministers. Question is Bengalis who suddenly turned revolutionists after Hyderabad are silent. #HangSaddam pic.twitter.com/i0D6sirpxR
— বানীব্রত দাশগুপ্ত (@Bunibroto) February 24, 2020
Both the accused have been presented before court and sent to custody for 14 days. Police claims that there are more people involved in this murder, apart from Saddam and his accomplice Sheikh Manjur. Investigations are still ongoing.
Sources:
Anandabazar Patrika
Sangbad Pratidin
telegraphindia.com
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[…] February 2020, charred dead bodies of mother and daughter, Ria Dey and Ruma Dey, were recovered from Haldia district in West Bengal. Police has arrested Saddam Hussain and his […]