Kolkata man who lived with skeletons of sister and dogs found charred to death

Partha De, who lived in Kolkata’s infamous House of Horror for six months with the skeletons of his elder sister and two pet dogs before he hit the headlines in June 2015, was found dead under ‘mysterious conditions’ in a flat in the city on Tuesday.

Preliminary investigations and circumstantial evidence have led police officers to suspect that Partha, a software engineer, tried to commit suicide but might have died of a heart attack and not due to burn injuries.

“De’s charred body was recovered from the toilet of a flat where he had been living for the past few months in Watgunge area (in west Kolkata). A bottle half filled with petrol and some match sticks were found scattered on the floor. Only an autopsy report can reveal how Dey died,” said Sudip Sarkar, deputy commissioner, port, Kolkata Police. He was 46.

Even neighbours did not hear any screams from De’s flat in the morning.

Partha’s 77-year old father Arobindo De had also committed suicide in June 10, 2015 by setting himself ablaze in his bathroom in his Robinson Street house. The father’s suicide had brought the police to the house and unveiled the grotesque story that left the nation shocked.

Six months before that, his sister Debjani had starved herself to death, apparently after going into depression following the death of their two Labradors in August. Debjani was a spinster.

The skeletons of the dogs were also found in the house. Arobindo’s charred body was recovered from a bathtub in the bathroom. The house came to be known as Kolkata’s House of Horror.

Since then, Partha De spent a few months at Pavlov Mental Hospital, and thereafter, at a home run by the Missionaries of Charity. Later, he shifted to an undisclosed location.

“On Tuesday morning, after failing to elicit any response from Partha De, the caretaker of the flat entered the 11th floor apartment using a duplicate key. Inside, he found De’s half charred body lying on the toilet floor. He informed the police around noon,” said a police officer.

Local police and officials of the detective department’s homicide squad rushed to the spot.

Neighbours said that Dey had been living in the flat for the past 8-10 months but never interacted with anyone.

“I stumbled upon him many a time in the corridor and in the elevator. But he never smiled or interacted. He lived all by himself and sometimes used to go for a stroll in the evening,” said Joydip Sen, a neighbour.

His mother had died many years ago.