Guwahati: A woman named Bandana Kalita (32), along with two friends was arrested for allegedly killing her mother-in-law and husband and disposing of their bodies in the deep gorges of Cherapunji and Dawki in Meghalaya.
The incident occurred in July 2022.
Bandana Kalita is the wife of Amar Jyoti Dey and resides at House No. 11, Amarawati Apartment, MT Road, Narengi. She works as a gym instructor at Pump Muscle Gym in Bonda.
She was charged with the missing report of a man at Noonmati Police Station, registered as No. 56/22 on August 29, 2022. Additionally, a case was filed against her at Noonmati Police Station, registered as No. 480/22 under sections 365/382 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), and sections 302/201 of the IPC were also added to the case.
On July 26, 2022, Bandana Kalita killed her mother-in-law, Shankari Dey (62), while she was sitting on the sofa at her house in Chandmari. Bandana used a pillow to smother her, while Arup Deka held her legs, causing Shankari to become breathless and eventually expire.
After the murder, Bandana placed a “belna” under the head of Shankari Dey and used a “dao” to cut off her head. Arup Deka then cut off the deceased’s hands. The body was then chopped into three pieces, and Dhonti Deka brought polythene to dispose of the body.
“Later, on July 27, 2022, at around 3 am, the three suspects left for Meghalaya in Dhonti’s Hyundai Accent vehicle. At 10 am, they threw the body parts, which were wrapped in a blanket and plastic sheets, into a deep gorge located at Alieangriat village under Sohra police station in Meghalaya. The head, one hand, one “dao,” and the “belna” were disposed of at different locations,” commissioner of police Diganta Barah said.
“On August 17, 2022, Bandana Kalita killed her husband, Amarjyoti Dey, while he was in their flat located in Narengi. The flat was shared by both of them. Bandana, along with her accomplices Dhonti and Arup, attacked Amarjyoti with a rod, and he succumbed to the attack. The body was then chopped into five pieces,” Barah said.
“The following day, on August 18, 2022, at around 3 am, using Dhonti’s Hyundai Accent vehicle again, the suspects disposed of the body parts, which were wrapped in two plastic sheets, on the Dawki Road in Meghalaya,” he added.
Kalita was produced before the court of the chief judicial magistrate in Kamrup Metro on Monday, where she was remanded to four-day police custody. The other two accused are Dhonti Deka (32), son of Ramesh Deka, Sashan Basti, Narengi, Kenduguri (a tourist cab driver), and Arup Deka (27), son of Kailash Deka, near Ferry Land High School, Checkgate, Khanapara (vegetable seller and had worked in a coal mine in Meghalaya before).
According to Barah, Bandana Kalita claimed that her husband, Amarjyoti Dey, had a different lifestyle and used addictive substances, and maintained multiple friendships with other women. To get rid of her mother-in-law and husband, Bandana conspired to kill both of them and, with the help of her close associates Arup Deka and Dhonti Deka, put her plan into action.
However, Bandana tried to mislead the police by filing a man missing complaint at Noonmati PS on August 29, 2022, stating that her mother-in-law Sankari Dey (62) and her husband Amarjyoti Dey (32) were missing.
On November 21, 2022, Nirmalya Dey (42), the nephew of Shankari Dey, lodged an FIR alleging that Kalita had withdrawn money from his aunt’s (Shankari Dey’s) SBI bank account via ATM after the two missing individuals, Shankari and Amarjyoti Dey, disappeared. Nirmalya suspected that they had been abducted. As a result, the police registered case number 480/22 under section 365/382 of the Indian Penal Code and began their investigation.
“The missing person’s report and abduction case were reviewed, and a special team led by ADCP (Central District) Kalyan Pathak was assigned to conduct further investigation into the missing report and the abduction case,” stated the police commissioner.
The special team re-examined the informant, Kalita, and the complainant, Nirmalya Dey, and found numerous inconsistencies in Kalita’s statements. The inconsistencies raised suspicions against her, and as a result of sustained interrogation over two days, she finally confessed to the crime, according to the police commissioner.
“Based on her confession, two of her associates who were the partners in the commission of the gruesome crime were arrested. Dhonti Deka was picked up from Tinsukia with the help of Tinsukia Police and Arup Deka was picked up from Khanapara and put to intensive interrogation and both confessed to the commission of the offences,” he added.
EASTMOJO PREMIUM
Help sustain honest journalism.
After learning the whereabouts of the body parts, a special team, along with the Meghalaya Police, took the trio to the locations where the body parts of the two victims had been thrown overboard. The team searched the gorges in Aliangriat village and eventually found the mortal remains of Shankari Dey. However, the body parts of Amarjyoti Dey are still missing, and the team plans to launch an operation to recover them soon, according to the police commissioner.
In addition, the police seized two mobile phones belonging to Bandana Kalita and Dhonti Deka, as well as a vehicle with license plate AS-01-JC-5795 (a Hyundai Accent), ATM cards belonging to Shankari Dey and Amarjyoti Dey, and tattered clothes and a blanket belonging to Shankari Dey, which was recovered in Sohra.
Also Read | Guwahati woman kills husband, his mother, dumps bodies in Meghalaya