An assistant manager of a central public sector bank has allegedly murdered his wife and surrendered before the local police station in Burdwan West district late last night. The neighbours of the apartment are stunned.

Ipsa Priyadarshini, 35, is a resident of Dhenkanal in Odisha. She was married, about two years ago, to a bank officer also from Odisha. The couple used to stay at a multistoried apartment on rent in Kanksha since their marriage in 2019 at Cuttack.

Last night, riding his own motorcycle, Biplab Pariad, assistant manager of a central public sector bank in Kanksha, surrendered at the Kanksha police station of Asansol Durgapur Police Commissionerate (ADPC). He told the police that he has failed to meet the growing daily needs of his wife and has throttled her to death with a leash used for pets after an altercation last evening.

Neelkantham Sudheer Kumar, CP of Asansol Durgapur Police Commissionerate said that police has started an investigation and has taken the accused on remand. Senior police officials were stunned after seeing that he has not lost his cool. They accompanied him to his house and found his wife was lying dead on the bedroom floor of the house.

The body has been sent to Durgapur sub-divisional hospital for autopsy. This morning the victim’s parents and other family members arrived in Kanksha. His father-in-law has alleged that he used to physically torture his daughter after marriage and has sought Rs 30 lakh from her parents to purchase a house.

“As my daughter has refused to pay him the extra dowry amount of Rs 30 lakh for purchasing a flat from us and yesterday in a fit of rage the ill-tempered son-in-law has killed my daughter. We want justice for the murder of my daughter and exemplary punishment of the guilty,” said Uday Nand Behera, retired bank manager and father of the victim.

Kanksha police station has forwarded him to court and taken him into five days’ police custody for further investigations. Senior cops of the ADPC will grill him. So far the accused has remained abnormally normal and denied that he has sought extra money from his in-laws. The incident of a bank manager killing his wife or fiancée has rocked Durgapur as this is the third such type of incident in the past five years.