Frustrated over domestic disputes at her house, Sonali Sen killed her mother on Monday by strangulating her using a veil.
Published Jun 13, 2023 | 7:15 PM ⚊ Updated Jun 13, 2023 | 7:17 PM
Victim Biva Pal's body inside the suitcase at Mico Layout police station
Cops at the Mico Layout Police Station in Bengaluru were flabbergasted on Monday, 12 June, when Sonali Sen (39) walked in with a large blue suitcase.
The Station House Officer (SHO) and a few constables initially thought it was a case of defective or damaged goods delivered to her, or a passenger who had had a dispute with either an auto-rickshaw or taxi driver.
“As she was frantically talking in Hindi, we couldn’t make out what she was saying, until we informed Police Sub-Inspector (PSI) Sanjeev G, who attended to her,” said the SHO.
“The officer came out and interacted with Sonali Sen, who opened the suitcase and told the cops that she had killed her mother,” he added. “Little did we realise that there was a body of a woman inside the suitcase.”
The SHO continued: “PSI Sanjeev scrambled to inform Police Inspector (PI) Girish ML, who was out on rounds. PI Girish rushed to the police station and inquired into the matter and registered a case of murder.”
Sonali Sen, the 39-year-old physiotherapist, had been staying with her husband, their nine-year-old son who is on the autism spectrum, her 71-year-old mother Biva Pal, and her mother-in-law in a flat at the NSR Greens Apartment on the Kodichikkanahalli Main Road in the Bilekahalli suburb of Bengaluru for about five years now.
Sen’s husband works as an engineer at a private firm in Hebbagodi, the police said.
Sen is a native of Kolkata and the only daughter of her parents, who owned a house in Kolkata and were staying there until 2018. Her father died in 2018, after which she took her mother to live with her in Bengaluru.
There, domestic disputes arose between Sen’s mother and mother-in-law. The family members somehow found ways to move past them.
However, police sources said the brunt of this seemed to have been falling for a long time on Sen, who also had to care for her autistic son. Her mother also had health issues, like high blood pressure.
The police said there was a severe domestic dispute at Sonali’s house a few days ago, but refused to share details about it.
Between 11 am and 11.30 am on Monday, Sonali decided to force-feed her mother a few sleeping pills, after which she strangulated her mother using a veil and killed her, said the cops.
A short-statured and lean Sen stuffed her mother’s body in a suitcase. She also put her father’s portrait in it.
She then kept the suitcase in a cupboard in her house and initially planned to dispose of the body. However, she soon aborted her plans, not knowing what to do next.
That was when she then took the suitcase to the Mico Layout Police Station, even before her husband came to know of what had transpired, and confessed the crime to the cops.
At one point during the confession, she also told the police that her mother wanted to die and that was the reason she killed her.
Asked whether the victim was force-fed sleeping pills, Deputy Commissioner of Police (South East) Division CK Baba told South First: “The victim has been strangulated by a veil. The other claims are under investigation.”
He, however, confirmed Sen personally brought the body in a suitcase to the police station.
“The body has been subjected to a post-mortem examination, and the reports are awaited,” said Baba.
