Kolkata's 'horror' house: Unnerving tale of skeletons and incest

Paper notes, diaries, laptops and desktop computers recovered from the 'horor' house in Kolkata where a man was found living with a skeleton and carcasses have revealed a complicated relationship between the family members.

A senior police officer investing into the case said, "Going by the content of the notes and those of the diaries recovered from the apartment, it seems that the members of the De family had a very complex set of understanding between them."

Though the police were yet to ascertain about who wrote the notes and the diaries, they were not completely rubbishing an incestuous relationship between the members of the De family, which owned the apartment in the city's upscale Robinson Street.

"We are still waiting for the reports from hand writing experts on who wrote those notes and the diaries and to whom," the police said.

The police had on Friday seized eight laptops, desktop computers, paper notes and letters purportedly written by family members and diaries from the apartment. On whether there was any property-related dispute among members of the De family, he said, "We are probing into all sorts of possibilities. But till now we have not got any such lead."

The house on 3, Robinson Street stands on 23 kottahs of land in downtown Kolkata and was built in the 1950s by the father of Arabindo De, the septuagenarian who allegedly committed suicide by setting himself on fire in his bathroom after bolting it from inside on Wednesday night.

The probe into it led to the discovery of the skeleton allegedly of his 50-year-old daughter Debjani and carcasses of two dogs in the apartment and the living mentally unstable 45-year-old son Partho, who said he was living with them for six months.

While Arabindo stayed in a three-room flat of the house, his brother Arun stayed in the adjacent portion of the building. There are a couple of tenants too. Police said it was learnt that Arabindo had visited a solicitor on Monday to prepare a legal declaration of his property.

On examining Partho's three mobile phones police found that calls were made to several top restaurants of the city besides one particular relative of the family. A close relative of the De family was interrogated for around two hours in connection with the case, the police added.

Police said tests were being conducted on the skeleton purportedly belonging to Debjani. "We are waiting for the reports. Once they reach us it will make our job pretty easy."

Meanwhile, Ganesh Prasad, superintendent of Pavlov Mental Hospital, where Partho was admitted on Thursday said that he was in "a much better shape." "He appeared as an absolute normal person this (Sunday) morning. He spoke to other patients and had normal food. There was no abnormal behaviour noticed in Partho," Prasad told reporters.

A medical team comprising three psychologists and two doctors has been formed to check on Partho's mental health, he added.