In a span of just three years, Kalidas Banerjee's four-member family was reduced to one, with fate snatching away daughter Tanya.
The murder of 25-year-old Tanya, a call centre employee in Bangalore, comes as the latest blow for Banerjee, who had lost his son and wife earlier. The retired assistant commandant of the Railway Protection Force lives in Belur in Howrah district, West Bengal.
Banerjee's son Abhijit, a traffic warden, was killed in an accident at Belur Bazar in 2003. Meghmala, his wife, died last year of a heart attack.
On Wednesday, Tanya was found brutally murdered with 25 injuries, mainly stab wounds, on a national highway near Sakleshpur in Karnataka's Hassan district.
Banerjee said Tanya, who had gone to Bangalore four years ago, used to call him up daily. She had even spoken to him on Tuesday night from her office, Aviva-24/7, hours before she was killed. The father had noticed nothing unusual in her conversation.
After passing out from Assembly of God Church School, Tanya studied English (honours) in Scottish Church College, Kolkata. She worked in two other companies in Bangalore before joing Aviva.
Tanya had told her father that she would be coming home next month to celebrate her birthday. Instead, her father is leaving for Bangalore on Friday to bring back her body.