DU professor murder: How cops tracked Bengal couple who travelled 1,400 km to kill the woman

Inside a locked apartment in East Delhi, Debosmita Paul, an assistant professor of Delhi University Shivaji College, was found dead in her sixth-floor apartment in Vasundhara Enclave on Wednesday (June 3).

On Sunday (June 7), within three days, Delhi police said they have solved the murder of a 42-year-old DU professor after arresting a married couple, Ramprasad Das (42) and Banshree Das (36), who travelled nearly 1,400 km from West Bengal to kill the professor over a property dispute worth crores.

Police sources said their minor son has also been detained, NDTV reported. The Das couple will be brought before a local court, where the Delhi Police is likely to seek a transit remand to take them to Delhi for further investigation, officials added.

How the Das couple murdered a DU professor

According to officials, the accused couple were residents of Bardhaman, West Bengal. They had travelled to the national capital to meet the victim. At the time of the incident, Paul was alone at her home. After the separation in 2022, five years into the marriage, she was living in her Delhi flat alone, while her husband was in Bengaluru.

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On Tuesday (June 2), they travelled to Delhi with a premeditated plan to kill Paul. To avoid raising suspicion, they checked into a guest house in Dallupura, a locality in East Delhi, using Aadhaar details belonging to other individuals, India Today reported.

Investigators subsequently identified the fake identities through guest house records and placed the associated phone numbers under surveillance.

On June 3, the CCTV footage caught them visiting Paul's flat. The Das couple was wearing masks and had arrived in a private cab with some bags. They came under the pretext of meeting the victim and brought their minor son along to avoid suspicion.

Officials say they entered Paul's house on a friendly note and executed the murder using a weapon that they had carried with them.

They then changed their clothes and returned 30 minutes later, locking the apartment from the outside. The couple accused took the cab waiting for them downstairs. Police also detained the cab driver and used his ride details to identify the passengers, NDTV reported.

Cops recovered several items from the accused, including the victim’s Samsung mobile phone, a razor allegedly used in the crime, along with clothes, a cap, a backpack, and train tickets.

How did police track them?

Extensive examination of CCTV footage by the police from the housing complex and surrounding areas led to the breakthrough.

At least 13 suspects were identified from among 200 individuals who had visited the complex on June 3, and all were questioned. Seven police teams also conducted raids across four states and questioned hundreds of people. The final lead took the officials to Bardhaman.

After committing the murder, the trio reached Anand Vihar before proceeding to New Delhi Railway Station, where they boarded the Poorva Express around 5.40 pm on June 3. They reached Bardhaman the following day.

A crucial clue emerged from the taxi driver who had transported the accused. Officials found the ride details and used them to identify the passengers, helping crack the case.

On Saturday (June 6), the police team flew to Bengal and continued tracing the Das couple through CCTV footage from Bardhaman railway station. The trio were located at their hideout and was later arrested in Bardhaman.

What was the key motive of the murder?

Paul owned a property in West Bengal that she had inherited after her maternal grandfather's death. The accused were tenants living in the property, which was worth crores of rupees. They were attempting to acquire it; however, Paul was pressuring them to vacate the premises.

According to investigators, this made the couple plot the victim's murder in a bid to gain control of the asset.

On Thursday (June 4), when Paul did not respond to her sister's Devarati Paul's repeated calls. She reached the apartment, found it locked from the outside. Devarati broke the lock and discovered the professor's body inside.

Investigators said Paul suffered deep injury to her head and severed veins in her wrist, adding that they found no signs of forced entry or theft since assets were found untouched in the house.

A case under Section 103(1) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) was registered, and further investigation was launched.

With inputs from agencies