Durgapur police arrested a bank officer and his wife after a dead body of a 28- year-old customer care executive of Mejia in Bankura was foundstacked inside a blue trolley bag for dispatch to a rented private apartment in Benachity area Statesman News Service (Arunima) The victim, Shilpa Agarwal, hailed from Mejia industrial town in Bankura and her decomposed body bearing marks of cut and burn injuries was found dumped inside the tourist bag at the apartment of a State Bank of India (SBI) manager couple in Durgapur, about 35 km from Mejia.

The accused, Rajiv Kumar, was the manager of a nationalised bank and his wife, Manisha Kumar, an assistant manager with the Fuljhore branch of the SBI in Durgapur. The victim was an operator of Customer Service Point (CSP) kiosk at Mejia itself for over two years.

She had come to Rajiv’s apartment on 10 February, when the bank manager’s wife reportedly had been to Danapur in Bihar, their native place. “This was possibly a regular practice and that’s why her arrival report wasn’t mentioned in the visitors’ register book of the apartment,” said Mr Abhiskeh Modi, DCP, Asansol Durgapur Police Commissionerate. The couple had taken the flat at Rupali Apartment in Benachity area on rent.

Agarwal’s house at Bagangora locality in Mejia is barely 60 metres away from the local SBI branch where her ‘killer’ was the branch manager. She used to run the CSP within her premises where she also used to manage a rice retail outlet after her father Satyanarayan’s death three years ago.

“She was our lone resort after my husband’s death as my son is a physically challenged person and cannot move out,” said Usha Agarwal, Agarwal’s mother. She alleged: “The manager had taken Rs 1 lakh from my daughter in the name of doubling it in six months but was evading whenever was asked to refund.”

Durgapur police traced the mobile phone signal of the missing woman at Nayeem Nagar in Durgapur. Agarwal had told her mother and brother that she is going to her aunt’s house in Asansol and had been missing since Friday. Police have picked up both Rajib Kumar and his wife, Manisha Kumar, and taken them in custody.

Mr Abhisekh Modi, ADCP (east) of Asansol Durgapur Police Comissionereate (ADPC) told The Statesman that a case has already been registered. “ We have seized the body at a very decomposed state. The body has been sent to Asansol District Hospital for post mortem,” Mr Modi added.

The family members of the victim rushed from Mejia and gheraoed the Durgapur police station and demanded punishment for the guilty. Incidentally in 2015, Samaresh Sarkar, another branch manager of Central Bank of India of Mamrabazar branch in Durgapur had allegedly killed one Sucheta Chakraborty and her little daughter, stacked them in a travelling bag and tried to dump in the Hooghly river. He was caught red-handed.