A second post-mortem examination has been conducted on the body of 28-year-old lawyer Anushka Chakraborty after she was found hanging inside a locked apartment in Hazaribag’s Bengali Colony, while her family has disputed the initial suicide theory and demanded a deeper investigation.
Chakraborty was found at about 10 am on Thursday inside her apartment under the jurisdiction of Bada Bazar police station. Her family refused to accept the death as suicide and sought the second examination, which was conducted on Friday. Police have seized electronic devices and are examining the sequence of events before her death, including when and how the flat’s electronic code lock was activated.
The lock has become a central part of the investigation because police entered the apartment with the help of Chakraborty’s husband Kushagra Rudra’s driver. Investigators are trying to establish who locked the flat and when. Bada Bazar police station officer-in-charge Mukesh Kumar Rajak said police were looking for Rudra, who had not returned to Hazaribag more than 24 hours after the incident.
According to police, Rudra called emergency number 100 but did not come to the apartment. When contacted, he reportedly said he was in Palamu and would return soon. His current location and movements are being examined as part of the investigation.
Chakraborty’s brother, Devjit Chakraborty, has questioned a message reportedly sent to their mother shortly before her death. He said Anushka generally communicated with her mother through phone calls or voice notes and used Bengali whenever she sent text messages. The final message, however, was typed in Hindi.
The message reportedly said that she could not bear the situation any longer, referred to her husband allegedly telling her that only her corpse would leave the apartment, and asked her mother for forgiveness. The contents have been reported as part of the family’s concerns; police have not independently established the circumstances in which the message was written or sent.
Devjit also alleged that Anushka had suffered a miscarriage days earlier and was subsequently taunted and mentally harassed by her husband and in-laws over her inability to bear a child. These allegations remain under investigation and have not been independently established by police.
The family has also pointed to photographs and videos from Sindoor Khela celebrations on Wednesday, saying Anushka appeared happy hours before her death. Police are examining electronic devices and other available material to reconstruct the events leading up to the discovery of the body.
The case places attention on the evidentiary questions that arise when a death occurs inside a secured residential premises: access records, device data, emergency calls and the sequence of actions by people connected to the apartment. Those questions remain unresolved in the supplied account.
Anushka’s parents have demanded justice. Ramgarh MLA Mamta Devi met the family at Sadar Hospital. Police are continuing efforts to locate Rudra and determine the circumstances surrounding the death and the apartment’s electronic lock.
