A 44-year-old Bhowanipore businessman missing since Monday afternoon was murdered, shoved into a gunny bag and dumped in a chamber that was then sealed off with a brick wall on the terrace of a house in Nimta on the northern outskirts of Calcutta.
Police said Bhavya Lakhani, 44, was hit with a cricket bat and stumps in the house of his business associate, Anirban Gupta, 38.
The police smashed the cemented wall and pulled the bodybag out.
Gupta has been arrested and charged with murder and causing the disappearance of evidence.
The police said Gupta took Rs 50 lakh from Lakhani for supplying medicines but allegedly failed and was not returning the money either.
Lakhani, who ran a pharmaceutical business besides a share trading firm, had offices on Ballygunge Circular Road and Ezra Street.
Lakhani is survived by his elderly mother, wife and two sons who go to a reputable south Calcutta school. His social media profiles are replete with colourful pictures of the family on holidays.
Gupta is said to have confessed to the crime and led the police to the hidden body.
Calcutta police commissioner Vineet Goyal said on Wednesday that the murder appeared to be “pre-planned”.
Lakhani, a resident of Priyanath Mullick Road in Bhowanipore, had left his office at 29A, Ballygunge Circular Road on Monday afternoon to meet Gupta at 34, Probodh Mitra Lane in Nimta, about 25km north from the heart of Calcutta.
“The victim went to meet one of his business associates in Nimta on Monday afternoon. Anirban Gupta killed Bhavya Lakhani. One more person has been arrested. The investigation is in progress,” Goyal added.
The second accused, Suman Das, 38, of 20A, Gour Laha Street in Jorabagan, is suspected to have carried Lakhani’s phone to Sovabazar in north Calcutta, allegedly to divert police’s attention and to make it appear as if Lakhani himself had been there.
Das was the first to be arrested. Goyal said he broke down and confessed to his crime during interrogation.
Lakhani’s family members said when he did not return home late on Monday, they reported the matter to Ballygunge police station.
Initially, a missing complaint was lodged. During the preliminary inquiry, the police found Lakhani’s last cellphone tower location: Nimta. But his phone was found at an address near Sovabazar.
A day later, the complaint was modified into a case of kidnapping and abduction.
Gupta was detained on Tuesday. Based on his statement, the police raided the Nimta house and recovered the missing businessman’s body.
A member of the Lakhani family said he knew Gupta for about a year through business associations.
“Anirban Gupta was engaged in a big pharmaceutical company. He lost his job at that company but did not reveal that to Bhavya. He (Lakhani) continued his business dealings with the man thinking he was still attached to the company,” the relative said.
Gupta had allegedly opened a bank account in the name of his former employer and was taking money from Lakhani in that account, the relative added.
“Bhavya had said before leaving home that Gupta was supposed to arrange a meeting between him (Lakhani) and a senior official of the company where Gupta was pretending to work,” the relative said.
The police said they were probing all angles and scrutinising the financial transactions between the two.
Lakhani’s body underwent a postmortem on Wednesday. The preliminary report said that Lakhani was murdered on Monday night and the probable cause of his death was a fatal blow on his head.
