Mystery over Sushmita's death deepens with marriage claims

Mystery continues to cloud the death of Bengali author Sushmita Bandopadhyay, with newer aspects emerging almost on a daily basis baffling her family and Indian authorities alike.

While her friend Shalini Naskar had claimed that Sushmita was to return by the month end and marry a Delhi-based friend Deepak Kumar, the murdered author’s younger brother Gopal has made it clear that he had no knowledge of such an alliance. The dead author, meanwhile, is found to have two Facebook accounts; one in her own name and the other as Nilanjana Bandopadhyay.

Sushmita has used the second account to interact with her said-to-be fiancé, registering Nilanjana as the head of Makhtab women’s hospital in Afghanistan. “Makhtab” in local language refers to a religious school.  Deepak told a Bengali news channel that he met Sushmita on the social networking site and grew close. “We had decided to marry on September 22,” he said.

Gopal’s wife Debolina, however, said, “There are a lot of loopholes in what is being said.”  Debolina told reporters that Sushmita had no plans of returning to India.  An email Gopal received on Monday from A Singha, the Indian envoy in Kabul, added to the mystery of Sushmita’s death. 

The email quoted Sushmita’s Afghan husband Jaanbaz Khan as saying he was not sure her killers were Taliban even though he had told Gopal on September 6 that the assailants were Taliban.