Private firm exec Subir Chaki killed because he recognised robber: Kolkata cops
Vicky’s mother, Mithu Haldar, who worked as a nurse in the Kankulia Road area, was arrested by the Kolkata Police on Wednesday in connection with Subir Chaki’s murder. She was remanded in police custody for two weeks by a Kolkata court on Thursday.
KOLKATA: Subir Chaki, 61, the managing director of Kilburn Engineering, and his driver Rabin Mondal, 65, were allegedly murdered after the top executive recognised Vicky Haldar who posed as a buyer for Chaki’s three-storey ancestral house and intended to rob him, according to people familiar with the matter.
Vicky, who met Subir Chaki ostensibly to seal the deal for the house in south Kolkata’s upmarket Gariahat area, assumed that the 61-year-old would be carrying a lot of cash.
Vicky’s mother, Mithu Haldar, who worked as a nurse in the Kankulia Road area, was arrested on Wednesday. She was remanded in police custody for two weeks by a Kolkata court on Thursday afternoon. Police told the court that she and Vicky planned the robbery that led to the murders.
“The detective department and officers from some other departments have cracked the case. A few more arrests are to be made. We will brief the media after wrapping up the investigation,” Kolkata Police commissioner Soumen Mitra said on Thursday, indirectly referring to Vicky and his associates who the police have not yet named.
Vicky met Subir Chaki for the first time around 10 months ago posing as a buyer but under a different name, the police found after interrogating the suspect’s mother, father Subhas Haldar, younger brother Bilash and maternal uncle Tarun Haldar. The last three were detained on Wednesday.
Police said Vicky’s mother revealed during interrogation that when Chaki recognized Vicky from their previous meeting, her son and his associates attacked the top executive with the knives they were carrying. They killed the driver too since he was a witness and decamped with Chaki’s gold rings and wallet, which had some cash and credit cards.
Vicky, who failed his matriculation examination but can converse in English, according to the investigators, continued to dodge the police till Thursday evening by changing locations and phone numbers.
His mother Mithu Haldar was picked up from her rented home at Diamond Harbour in South 24 Parganas district, the same locality where Vicky, Bilash and Tarun Haldar lived in another rented house.
Mithu Haldar and her husband Subhas Haldar have an estranged relationship and lived separately, police said.
South 24 Parganas district police officers said that in 2021, Subhas Haldar filed a complaint against his wife and Vicky, saying they tried to kill him. Mithu Haldar and her elder son were arrested and remanded in judicial custody before being released on bail.
Police said although Vicky was jobless, he told some relatives that he was an engineer with the Kolaka Metro railway. Some people also told the police that Vicky worked briefly at a crematorium.
Chaki’s body was found on the first floor while the driver’s body was lying on the second floor on Monday. There were multiple stab injuries.
Kankulia Road residents told police that they had heard several voices, including that of a woman, coming from the house on Sunday evening. Mithu Haldar, however, claimed during interrogation that she did not visit the house.
Police suspect that she was waiting in the vicinity because her landlady, Pampa Gayen, found her washing some blood-stained clothes later that night.
A police sniffer dog on Tuesday picked up a smell and led the officers to the Ballygunge railway station located less than a kilometre away. Trains for Diamond Harbour pass through this station.