Wife listens over phone unfazed even as her lover kills husband

KOLKATA: A missing engagement ring helped the police crack the mystery behind the murder of a travel agency owner, Anupam Singha (32), around two weeks ago. The vic tim's wife Ma nua and her lover, Ajit Roy alias Bubai, were arrested from Barasat in North 24Parganas on Wednesday and sent to 10-day police custody .
Calling it a “pre-planned and a rare, cold-blooded murder“, police said Roy called up Manua and made her listen to her husband scream while being murdered. Manua apparently remained unfazed even as Roy kept hitting Singha with a blunt weapon, till he died, police said.

Singha was found killed at his home at Taltala in Hridaypur on May 3, when no one else was around.

A resident of Barasat's Hridaypur and an employee of a money exchange firm, Singha, also owned a tour agency . He got married to Manua around one-and-a-half years ago, after a five-year relationship. But soon after their wedding, Manua reportedly began having an affair with Roy , who lived in the same ne ighbourhood as her parents' place at Barasat's Nabapally.

Cops suspect Manua got involved with Roy in absence of her husband, who would often have to travel to conduct tours for his agency . “Trouble broke out when Singha came to know about Manua's affair. He threatened Roy with dire consequences if he dared to get in touch with his wife again. After this, the duo conspired to kill him,“ a police officer sa id. Singha was found murde red at his home on May 3.

During investigation, the police found that all the valu ables in the house were in tact; only the engagemen ring that Singha never par ted with since the day he go married was missing.

“Singha's family mem bers pointed out that the ring that he always wore was mis sing. Later, we found it in his wife's custody and that trig gered our suspicion. We also got to know about her extra marital affair. Her paramour took the ring off the victim's finger after murder him and returned it to Manua,“ the of ficer added.

“Manua initially tried to misguide us but we nailed her role, given the inconsis tencies in her statements. We will take the duo to the spot to reconstruct the murder,“ sa id Abhijit Banerjee, ASP North 24-Parganas.