Chilling details emerge in Kolkata triple murder, teen says he ‘played dead’

Kolkata triple murder case: Days after the murder of two women and a minor girl in Kolkata, the teenage survivor revealed a shocking murder-suicide pact between the adult members of his family.

According to media reports, 14-year-old Pratip Dey who survived a suicidal car crash on EM Bypass in Kolkata last week, told a child rights panel that his father and uncle killed his mother Sudeshna Dey, aunt Romi Dey and cousin after the women backed out of a suicide pact at the last moment.

Pratip said that his father Pranay Dey and uncle Prasun Dey had tried to kill him too but he resisted.

Kolkata murder-suicide: What did the teenager say?

A report by the Times of India said that Pratip and his cousin Priyamvada were not kept in loop about the plan.

West Bengal Commission for Protection of Child Rights advisor Ananya Chakraborti Chatterjee met the boy in Kolkata's NRS Hospital and said that he was “in a state of shock”, a report by The Indian Express notes.

“He is in a state of shock, the business had failed. He said that his family was trying to figure out how to manage things. All the family members consumed porridge mixed with sleeping pills, my uncle executed it. He also said that his uncle tried to kill him by smothering, but he survived since because of regular yoga practice he was able to hold his breath,” she was quoted as saying by the newspaper.

TOI said that the boy survived by playing dead, as his father and uncle tried to smother him with a pillow. He told the child rights panel advisor that he fought with every ounce of energy in his body before hearing his father asking his uncle to smother him with a pillow. As he held his breath to play dead, the two men left assuming he had actually been killed.

Porridge laced with sedatives, plans to jump from roof

Pratip further told Chatterjee that they had eaten payesh (porridge) laced with sedatives on February 17, but that did not work. The two Dey brothers then planned to jump from the roof of their four-storey building but their wives refused, which is why they were killed.

Pratip further said that his cousin Priyamvada was the only person who seemed to have died due to the poison. He found her in the state when his father and uncle had left his room. In other rooms, he found that his mother and aunt lay dead.

Pratip then went on to find the Dey brothers preparing for suicide.

When asked why he joined them, the 14-year-old told Chatterjee he thought there was no point of living since all his loved ones were dead.

Kolkata triple murder case: The accident

The incident came into light when the Dey brothers along with Pratip crashed their car into a metro pillar near the Avishikta More on EM Bypass in Kolkata on the morning of February 19. All three of them survived the crash.

The three women of the family were found dead inside their Tangra residence with their wrists slashed.

Two brothers – Pranay and Prasun Dey – lived in that house in the eastern part of Kolkata with their wives Sudeshna and Romi, respectively.

Investigations found that the family's tannery business had been facing financial difficulties.