A woman died after she was chased and allegedly stabbed multiple times outside a popular eatery in full public view in the eastern fringes of Kolkata by three people, including a minor, the police said on Friday.
The victim, Rofiya Saquil, in her 20s, was reportedly dragged down from a car next to the eatery and chased before being fatally assaulted on Thursday evening, they said.
The three suspects have been arrested and the body of the woman was sent for post-mortem procedures, a police officer said.
The police said they were probing the possible angle of an extra-marital affair between the woman, a resident of Raja Ramnarayan Street of Narkeldanga area, and Mohammed Fahrukh Ansari, whose family members are suspected to have carried out the attack, as the motive behind the crime.
The incident took place around 8.30 pm on Thursday after the woman arrived at the dhaba adjacent to the Eastern Metropolitan Bypass at the Pragati Maidan Police Station area accompanied by Ansari, the police said, quoting eyewitnesses.
The woman, they added, was pulled out of her car and stabbed multiple times on her neck with a sharp weapon allegedly by a teenager, the son of Ansasri, who was accompanied by his mother and a 22-year-old man, who had reportedly followed the duo in a separate vehicle.
During their initial probe, the police found that the attackers followed Ansari through the GPS tracker in his car.
"The murder appears to be a well-planned one. Ansari's son was keeping track of his movement," the officer said.
Terrified eyewitnesses at the popular eatery found the profusely bleeding woman running for her life and screaming for help.
She was chased down by the attackers and pinned to a wall where they continued with the assault, he said.
Ansari, who is now absconding, has been identified as the husband of the woman who was a part of the team of attackers, the officer said. The victim, too, was married to another man, he added.
Saquil was moved to the state-run NRS Medical College and Hospital, where she died at around 2 am on Friday despite a surgical procedure being conducted on her at the emergency OT.
Doctors attributed excessive bleeding as the likely cause of her demise.
Speaking to PTI, an uncle of the deceased woman said the family members had no idea that she was into an extra-marital relationship.
"We got the news around midnight. She had gone to her parents' place and we had no clue whom she was meeting," he said.
Reacting to the incident, the Opposition raised questions about the security of women in West Bengal, and demanded that Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee take responsibility and resign.
Drawing parallels with the RG Kar hospital rape and murder incident, Bharatiya Janata Party state president Sukanta Majumdar called the Kolkata police "incompetent" and "sycophant".
"Failed chief minister (Mamata Banerjee) please react and resign! In the middle of the night, a young woman was openly chased on the street and brutally attacked with a sharp weapon, yet the incompetent, sycophant Kolkata police under her leadership failed to take any immediate action? Whether it is the restroom for female doctors in a government hospital or a crowded area in Kolkata, this state is gradually turning into a death trap for women. No matter how much the incompetent Chief Minister falsely claims that Kolkata is the safest city, the reality is that under her tenure, women in the state have suffered the most," Majumdar said in a post on X.
Countering him, senior Trinamool Congress MP Sudip Bandyopadhyay asserted that Kolkata's law and order situation is by far the best in the country.
Before making statements, the BJP should first look at the law and order situation in states ruled by it. See what happened at the Maha Kumbh (stampede incident). The Kolkata episode is very unfortunate, but the police have arrested the culprits, he said.
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