A parcel delivered to the Howrah correspondent of a small Hindi newspaper exploded in her hands Wednesday afternoon, killing her instantly. The bomb, which exploded around 1.30 pm, blew away the window of 40-something Chaitali Santra"™s bedroom in Howrah"™s South Banksara, slammed her body against a wall, and severely injured her husband Himangshu. He is fighting for life in hospital.
Santra wrote for a Delhi-based weekly called Julm se Jung, and relatives said she could have been targeted by someone whom she had hurt with her reporting.
"She reported on crime and had made several enemies. She used to get threatening calls. Someone called last week, and I heard her saying on the phone, "˜If you are so close to my home, why don"™t you just come in instead of asking me to go out?"™" Satabdi Santra, the journalist"™s college-going daughter said.
Howrah Madhya legislator and state Agriculture Marketing Minister Arup Roy said:"This is probably the first incident of a parcel bomb in West Bengal."
The police said they were investigating where the parcel came from.