KOLKATA: The Murshidabad district police have ruled out any political motive behind the murder of an RSS worker, his wife and son who were found hacked to death on Wednesday morning.
"The incident appeared to be the fallout of a property dispute. We have not come across any political motive behind it," said superintendent of police, Murshidabad, Mukesh Kumar.
The triple killing of school teacher Bandhu Prakash Pal (40), his pregnant wife Beauty (30) and son Angan (5) at their Jiaganj residence snowballed into a major political controversy after the BJP identified Pal as an RSS worker.
Preliminary investigations by the local police pointed at the family discord angle.
"We have come across three leads. One is a note written by Pal’s wife indicating a deteriorating marital relationship. The second is a family dispute over property inheritance between the victim and his two step-brothers. And the third lead is a friend, from whom the victim borrowed Rs 6 lakh, who is untraceable for the past one-and-a-half months," said a police officer.
Local residents told police they did not find any abnormality in Pal’s behaviour hours before he was found murdered along with his wife and son.
"He was found visiting the local market and purchasing fish and vegetables as usual," said the police officer.
"Pal had been active on social media. Some of his older posts on Facebook indicate anxiety, broken trust and people backstabbing him," he added.
Police have detained three people for interrogation.
"We are working on the leads that we have come across during the course of the investigation. We are expecting a breakthrough in this case shortly," said another police officer.
Meanwhile, a day after the Trinamool Congress hit out at Jagdeep Dhankar for his statement on the triple murder, the governor on Friday attended the Durga Puja immersion carnival, a brainchild of the ruling party’s supremo and chief minister Mamata Banerjee.
Mamata occupied a seat in a gallery where state government bureaucrats and ministers were present while Dhankar and his wife took their seats in another gallery.
Referring to the Murshidabad killings, Dhankar on Thursday said, "I am shocked, distressed and pained at the brutal killing of a school teacher, his wife and son…This is a critical reflection of the state of affairs and the law and order of Bengal…"
Reacting to it, Trinamool’s secretary-general Partha Chatterjee said Dhankar was demeaning the post of the governor by crossing his constitutional limits.