2011 case: Priyanka Chowdhury held for murder of software engineer

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has arrested Priyanka Chowdhury alias Moon, the former daughter-in-law of Mohun Bagan football club vice-president Balaram Chowdhury, in connection with the murder of a software engineer in 2011.

Sources said Chowdhury was arrested on Monday after she failed to properly respond to investigators' queries. She had been questioned thrice by the agency before being taken into custody.

Junior Mridha (26) was shot dead by unknown assailants on July 12, 2011, on the Belgharia Expressway. Initially, the death was believed to be the result of a motorbike accident, but the autopsy established that Mridha was shot dead.

An FIR was lodged at Baranagar police station on July 13 by Mridha's uncle. He claimed that the death was of doubtful nature and an unnatural one. The local police started investigating the case. Four years later, on July 19, 2017, it was transferred to
the Criminal Investigation Department. Later, the Calcutta High Court handed over the investigation to the CBI.

During the probe, the police started looking into the role of Chowdhury, who became friends with Mridha over Facebook. The two began dating in 2006. But no one in the software engineer's family reportedly knew that Chowdhury was married. Three months before the murder, one evening Mridha's family saw her on a popular television show talking about her then father-in-law's house.

She was also wearing sindoor, according to the account of the victim's family. Mridha's family then asked the two to break up. Mridha, who was shocked by the turn of events, allegedly stopped talking to Chowdhury.

The accused allegedly asked Mridha to meet her at a place both used to frequent. According to officials, once the victim left home she told him that she would not be able to come. Later, his body was found on the expressway. The police are investigating the possibility that Chowdhury hired contract killers to kill Mridha.