Mohammed Akhtar Hussain, a married man with children, from Siliguri has been arrested by West Bengal police on account of two murders. Both the victims are Hindu women who the accused had relationships with and later killed in cold blood. He had almost got away with the murders.
However, on August 31, local police recovered a woman’s body lying around the rail gate area of Matigara, a rural neighbourhood in Siliguri, West Bengal. Suspecting foul play they started their investigations. Soon they identified the deceased as Ankita Mahali (19), a local married woman.
The husband and the in-laws drew the investigative officer’s initial suspicion and they were taken into custody, though the police soon learned that Ankita had lately gotten involved with a local man Mohammed Akhtar Hussain.
Earlier last week, Siliguri police detained Hussain for interrogation and he admitted murdering Ankita. However, to the investigator’s shock, Hussain further confessed that Ankita was not the first woman he had murdered after a relationship.
He had lured another Hindu girl named Sucheta Mandal (25) into an affair, and murdered her around three months back. He decided to dispose off these women after his wife came to learn of his extra-marital affairs.
After killing Sucheta, he buried her body behind a warehouse near the Matigara rail gate. This is also the site of a makeshift market of dried fish. As no one could make out the smell of a dead human body decaying under the ground in this area, Hussain deliberately picked this location to bury Sucheta’s body.
When the police searched old cases from three-four months ago, they discovered that Sucheta’s kin had lodged a report about their daughter missing from the Chandmoni area, but no major progress had been made into that case.
On September 13, Matigara police visited the location where Hussain had told them Sucheta’s body was buried. The ground was dug up in front of the magistrate and the remains of the victim’s body were unearthed. Sucheta’s family was called in for identifying the body; her mother broke down seeing the decayed remains of her daughter. The remains were then sent for forensic examinations.
Investigations on the dual murders are still underway, and the police are trying to find out if there was anyone else assisting Hussain in these murders. Hussain was produced in Siliguri court on Thursday and has been sent to police remand.
Local media has been muted in its coverage of this shocking double-murder after the identity of the victim became known. In West Bengal today, even reporting on crimes committed by Muslims is considered ‘communal’ as it is likely to invoke the wrath of the ruling ‘secular’ TMC party.