Kolkata: Senior executive, driver murdered at ancestral Golpark house – Times of India

KOLKATA: A 61-year-old managing director of a BSE-listed company was found murdered on Sunday night — stabbed in the neck and legs — on the ground floor of his two-storey ancestral house on Kankulia Road near Golpark.
The corporate executive, Subir Chaki, lived in an upscale condominium in New Town and had put the house up for sale.

The body of the family driver, 65-year-old Rabin Mondal, was also found with similar injuries on the first floor.

The double murder sent shock waves through the middle-class neighbourhood and the corporate world. Chaki was the acting managing director of Williamson Magor group-owned Kilburn Engineering Ltd and had served in key managerial roles in several group companies, including Eveready Industries and McNally Sayaji Engineering Ltd. He had completed his schooling from St Xavier’s and went on to study at IIT-Kharagpur and IIM-Calcutta.
Chaki lived with his wife, mother and mother-in-law in a duplex apartment in Uniworld City, New Town. His son lives in London while his daughter, who lives in Bengaluru, is in New Town to spend the Pujas with her parents.
The senior executive, who owned two apartments in Uniworld City and one at Urbana off the EM Bypass, had re-registered these properties in the names of his family members — wife, son and daughter — a couple of years ago. His mother lived in the Kankulia Road house till 2016 but thereafter moved into his New Town flat. A portion of the ground floor of the house was rented to a consultancy firm.
According to police, Chaki reached the Kankulia Road property around 5.30pm on Sunday to meet either a broker or a proposed buyer for the six-decade-old house. His Mercedes was found parked outside the house. When he did not return home till late night, wife Anuradha called him up several times but his cell phone was switched off. She contacted a few neighbours in Kankulia Road and a few relatives who lived nearby to ask if he had dropped by. The relatives then contacted the police. The cops reached the address and discovered the murders.
“We have learnt that Subir Chaki was in touch with several brokers and prospective buyers. He was keen to sell the house after Durga Puja. On Sunday, he may have called some of them to show the property,” said Joint CP (crime) Murlidhar Sharma.
While the police are investigating everyone Chaki had been in touch with recently, particularly brokers and potential buyers, they are not ruling out the possibility of the killers posing as buyers to loot him or even someone known to Chaki who was familiar with the layout of the house. Family members have not identified anything missing from the house yet.
“The family is devastated. He was like a guiding star. He had no enemies. We do not suspect anyone. We have kept the body in a mortuary and are waiting for his son to arrive from London to do the last rites,” said Mainak Chaki, a cousin.
The initial post mortem report stated Chaki had suffered deep stab wounds on his neck and legs with a sharp weapon. His driver had even more injuries: deep stab wounds on his neck, back and legs. “The time of death has been specified as three to four hours after lunch, which translates to sometime between 5pm and 6pm,” said an officer.
Arup Biswas, an employee of the consultancy firm on the ground floor said he had never met Chaki and the rent was paid online. He claimed when he came to open the office on Monday, he found the door locked from inside. “The killers may have entered the office from within the house and bolted the door to prevent any outside interference,” said an investigating officer.
Neighbours said buyers and property agents would visit the house often. “Most of the time, it was Chaki’s driver Mandal who came with the keys. Chaki visited occasionally,” said Asim Kumar Bose, a next-door neighbour, adding that he did not hear any screams or unusual noises from the house on Sunday evening.