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Little did slain PU
Professor Papiya Ghosh know that her own
kitchen knife would one day end her life. On
the fateful night, Papiya's septuagenarian
maid Malti had herself handed over the knife
to the Professor to take on the intruders.
Fate, apparently, had some portentous design
in store. One of the intruders snatched the
long blade from Papiya's hand and brutally
stabbed her and her maid for resisting the
loot bid, a Police Officer said.
After a marathon interrogation of the four
criminals arrested in Papiya murder case,
police have ascertained that Shankar Sao,
the driver of a schoolteacher, had, in fact,
inflicted stab injuries to Papiya and Malti,
which caused their death.
"When we intruded into her house on December
2 around 9.30 pm, Papiya started screaming
for help. When I asked for money, she not
only posed a stiff resistance, but also
scuffled with me. In the meantime, the maid
appeared with a knife and handed it over to
the Professor to take us on," Shankar told
the interrogators. "In fact, we had no
option other than pinning her (Papiya) down
and finishing her off," he said.
The Police confirmed that Shankar's injury
in one of his arms, which he received during
his scuffle with Papiya, corroborated his
statement. Shankar had got his injured arm
bandaged in a private nursing home later,
they added.
Police sources said that after eliminating
Papiya and her maid, Shankar and his
accomplices stashed Papiya's car parked on
the rear side of the house with the looted
articles and dumped them at their hideout in
Kurji. In fact, the criminals had to make
two trips to ferry the looted articles, a
Police Officer said.
According to the Police, Shankar played the
lead role and was assisted by his
accomplices Ashish Kumar Rai, Anil Kumar
Oraon and Manohar Thakur.
The Police said that apart from the four
arrested persons, two more persons had
intruded into the house. The police are on
the lookout of the duo, who seem to be
absconding. Meanwhile, all the looted
articles as mentioned in the FIR have been
recovered.
Ironically, the Police have not yet
identified the criminal, who had made
threatening calls to Papiya's Delhi-based
publisher and dared IG (Patna zone)
Rajvardhan Sharma to catch him if he could.
"The caller is one among the four arrested
persons. But we will have to conduct a voice
test to identify him," the IG told TOI.
Meanwhile, the Police have arrested an
Ashiananagar-based advocate, Ramchandra
Mahto, under Section 412 of the IPC
(possessing articles looted in dacoity). A
washing machine looted from Papiya's house
was recovered from Mahto's house, a police
officer said.
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