This time, no chains were used - just blunt weapons such as iron rods, police said. Three days after the attack on Haoladar, two women were bludgeoned to death in Memari. Just as police were proceeding with the investigation, the killer struck again. These sleepy villages caught Bengal Police’s attention after the attempt on Haoladar’s life. Most houses in the area are thatched huts. With agricultural incomes slowing, many people have moved to daily-wage labour. The region is densely populated and crisscrossed by flat fields of paddy cultivated by mostly marginal farmers.
The agrarian belt comprising Kalna, Memari, Manteshwar, Nadanghat, Panduah and Balagarh lies in an arc along the Purba Bardhaman and Hooghly districts in southern Bengal. Choudhury suspected the incident may have something to do with two murders and three recent attempted murders in neighbouring Kalna and Memari, and in Balagarh in Hooghly district. However, in Haoladar’s case, Santanu Choudhury, the sub-divisional police officer of Kalna town, reached her home within the hour. In India, crimes with no serious injury usually figure low on the police’s priority list. “He ran out, leaving the chain behind,” said Haoladar, who was admitted to hospital with bruises on her neck. Sensing her chance, the housewife started screaming for help. The desperate gambit worked as Haoladar collapsed on the floor, the man loosened the noose and stepped away. “As I gasped for breath, I said to myself that if I pretended to be dead, he might leave me,” she said. Haoladar looked away to confirm a detail, only to find a heavy metal chain wound tight around her neck in a flash. He took off his helmet, entered the house, asked her how many lamps the family used, followed by another query about power consumption. The man left, and returned around 30 minutes later - this time to “read the meter”. Haoladar said she was alone, and that the others would not return for a few hours. The stranger said he had come from the state power department to inspect the electric meter, and asked how many people were home. Unexpectedly, a man on a red motorbike stopped in front of her house.
Her house is two thatched rooms under a tin roof, barely a kilometre from the Hatkalna gram panchayat office. On the afternoon of March 31, 21-year-old Iti Haoladar was sitting with her six-month-old son outside her home in Dharmadanga village in Bengal’s Purba Bardhaman district.
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