Kolkata, June 22 (IANS) A housewife, Bharati Hazra, was hacked to death in Howrah district’s Shibpur area for allegedly failing to repay a loan in full in one go, said the police on Monday.

According to the police, the murder took place on Sunday evening. The deceased woman’s husband alleged that she was murdered because she could not repay the loan in one instalment.

The police are trying to find the killer by examining the CCTV footage of the area.

According to local sources, on Sunday evening, four people on two motorbikes were roaming around in a suspicious manner in the area.

It is learnt that one of them called the woman and asked her to come downstairs. The moment she came down and opened the door, she was attacked with a sharp weapon and hacked to death right at her doorstep. After committing the crime, the attackers fled the scene.

According to family sources, the 40-year-old woman had borrowed Rs 50,000 from a person from Kasundiya Shibtala area and she had been repaying it in monthly instalments on time.

However, the deceased woman’s husband alleged that the couple had suddenly been pressured to repay the entire amount in one go for the past several days, but it was not possible for them to do so.

He alleged that people were repeatedly sent to threaten to kill both of them.

The husband told local media persons, “On Sunday evening, a man asked my wife to come downstairs. After a while, when she did not return, I also came downstairs and found my wife lying on the stairs in a bloody state. There was a sharp wound on her neck and soon she collapsed. When I took her to a local hospital, she was declared brought dead.”

The police were quickly informed of the murder and investigators collected blood samples and soil samples from the site of the killing.

The body has been sent for autopsy.

In this regard, a senior Howrah City Police official said, “We have found several clues during the investigation of the incident, but the exact reason for the murder is not clear. Efforts are being made to identify the killers by looking at the CCTV footage of the street.”

According to the police, the investigators are also examining the role of the husband in this regard and whether his claim of loan pressure being the reason behind the murder was true or not.

–IANS

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