Kolkata: A woman and her son were charred to death under mysterious circumstances at their home in Liluah of Howrah on Friday morning. The victims were Mita Chanda and Mainak, a class I student. Whether Mita committed suicide with her minor son by setting themselves on fire or they were set on fire is not clear.
They stayed at a house in Chak Kalitala. Mita's husband Joy Narayan Chanda and earned his living by working as a chit fund agent. He however left home after failing to pay the deposits from the investors who were after him for a long time for their lucrative returns in wake of the collapse of chit fund business in the state.
Since then Mita was staying at the ground floor of their two-storeyed house alongwith her seven-year-old son. Other rooms were rented. In the morning her tenants and neighbours found smoke billowing out of the ground floor. They informed the fire brigade after finding the mother-son duo lying charred on the bed. The fire brigade personnel recovered the bodies of Mita and Mainak with severe burn injuries from the bed. The mother-son duo were declared brought dead at TL Jaiswal Hospital. The two bodies were sent for post-mortem.
Mystery has shrouded their death as the tenants and neighbours told the police that they never heard any scream. Soumyadipta Mitra, nephew of Mr Chanda said, “We came to know from the tenants about the fire. My aunt and her son used to stay here alone.”
Mita's brother Goutam Brahma added, “My brother-in-law has been absconding over the past five years. We demand a proper probe. The fire brigade personnel did not allow me to go inside. All I could see is that the bed was burnt and some black marks on the wall of the bed-room.”
