A deep sense of unease and bewilderment has gripped the Machhuapara neighbourhood of Rangpur following the grim discovery of four murdered members of the same household. While detectives moved swiftly to apprehend two local youths, stark contradictions between initial police statements and the formal post-mortem examination—alongside puzzling questions surrounding clothing, a deliberately severed electricity line, and missing mobile handsets—have placed the official account under intense scrutiny.
The deceased have been identified as Ganapati Chakraborty, 65, a respected retired educator from Rangpur Zilla School, his wife Pritilata Chakraborty, 50, their 25-year-old daughter Agami Chakraborty, and their 12-year-old son Ayush Chakraborty Priyam. All four were discovered lifeless inside their locked family residence.
Following the autopsies on Monday, 24 August, Dr Bablu Kumar Biswas, Assistant Professor of Forensic Medicine, stated that all four victims succumbed to asphyxiation caused by manual strangulation. The medical findings directly contradicted key details earlier shared with the press by senior police officers. Rangpur Metropolitan Police Commissioner Abdul Mabud had claimed during a press briefing on Sunday that the perpetrators had shattered Agami’s jawbone. Dr Biswas firmly rejected this assertion, confirming that no skeletal fractures were present on any of the victims. He added that there was no trace of acid or corrosive chemicals on the victims’ faces; rather, the visible discolouration and tissue changes were the natural results of advanced bodily decomposition over several days. Samples have been sent to the Criminal Investigation Department laboratory for further toxicological and chemical profiling.
Public disquiet has intensified over a curious sartorial coincidence involving one of the accused. When photographed in police custody, suspect Siddhartha Das appeared in a patterned printed shirt identical in design to the one worn by Detective Branch Deputy Commissioner Sanatan Chakraborty. Siddhartha’s father, Binoy Das, contested the visual evidence, maintaining that his son was wearing merely an off-white cotton vest when surrendered to law enforcement, questioning how he came to wear the shirt while detained. Dismissing any suggestion of impropriety, the police officer clarified that the garment was a mass-produced piece from local fashion retailer Aarong, insisting the suspect was already wearing it at the point of arrest.
The operational timeline offered by authorities presents further anomalies. Police maintain that the youths murdered the family late on Thursday evening after being caught consuming illicit methamphetamine pills on the rooftop, lingering inside the premises until Friday afternoon before fleeing with looted gold jewellery. In contrast, Siddhartha’s father claimed his son dined at home around midnight on Thursday, called on a neighbour’s flat, and returned to eat breakfast on Friday morning—an alibi the neighbour disputed. Concurrently, the mother of the second suspect, Mugdha Das, stated her son returned home on Friday afternoon and casually mentioned he was heading out to play football.
Crucial pieces of physical evidence remain unaccounted for. Puja Chakraborty, a relative, recounted that all telephone lines belonging to the family went dead before she arrived at the house on Saturday night to find it padlocked from outside and in total darkness. While investigators revealed that the suspects immersed two handsets in detergent water to erase forensic data, detectives have provided no explanation regarding the whereabouts of the other two mobile phones used by the household.
The power failure at the residence was not incidental. An electrician summoned to inspect the flat after the bodies were recovered found that the main power lead from the roadside utility pole had been deliberately unscrewed and detached, pointing to calculated sabotage rather than a grid fault. The Detective Branch conceded they were unaware the electrical feed had been severed.
With forensic findings at odds with initial official declarations and basic material facts still unclarified, local residents continue to question whether detectives have captured the complete sequence of events behind the tragedy.
