Child’s body in bag of neighbour

(Top) A file picture of Tamalika; The bag in which her body was found. Picture by Mita Roy

July 22: The body of a six-year-old girl was found stuffed in a duffel bag kept in the back seat of the Alto of a neighbour she used to call “kaku”, triggering allegations of kidnapping for ransom or trafficking in Purulia.

The couple that own the car — the husband works in a finance company while the wife is a homemaker — were beaten up by a 1,000-strong crowd that gathered after the body of Tamalika Deoghoria was discovered early today at Munsifdanga, 240km from Calcutta.

The crowd alleged that police did not search the house of the couple, Malay and Piya Ghosh, even though the kindergarten student’s parents had complained that she had gone there. The OC was also thrashed. The husband, in his thirties, and the OC have been admitted to hospital.

The motive of the suspected murder has yet to be ascertained but people in the neighbourhood said Malay and Piya used to run a “trafficking racket”.

The police said the couple were “going through a financial crisis” and they might have confined Tamalika to extort money from her parents. However, other than owning an ancestral house in a nearby village, the girl’s family is of modest means — father Mathur gives private music lessons and mother Mitali is an integrated child development scheme (ICDS ) worker.

After returning from tuition last afternoon, Tamalika, had gone to the Ghoshes’ house, 20ft away. “She said she was going to ‘Malay kaku’s place’. But when she did not return after a few hours, I went to his house,” Mathur said.

“I was surprised when Piya told me that Tamalika was not there,” he said.

A police team searched the locality but did not enter the Ghoshes’ house, accepting Piya’s verbal assurance. But the parents, some relatives and neighbours kept vigil in front of the Ghoshes’ house through the night.

Around 5am, Piya opened the door and tried to step out with her husband. They were stopped, beaten up and the police were called.

The police searched the garage adjoining the house and found the bag in the back seat of the Ghoshes’ Alto. “When we opened the bag, we saw the girl’s body stuffed in it. Her limbs had been folded so that the body could fit into the bag,” an officer said.