A 24-year-old woman, six months into her pregnancy, was reportedly murdered by her husband in the North 24 Parganas district of West Bengal. The deceased, identified as Puja Mondal, was discovered on Wednesday evening at her residence in the Lenin Nagar area of Garulia, with her body wrapped in plastic and concealed beneath a bed.
Three individuals have been taken into custody, her husband, Rishi Harichand, along with his mother and another family member and a formal murder case has been registered. The victim’s family alleged that Puja had endured persistent financial harassment throughout her two-year marriage and that the couple’s union had never been accepted by either family. Police are conducting further investigations and the body has been sent for a post-mortem examination.
A Life Lost, a Family’s Warning Left Unheeded
According to the complaint lodged by Mondal’s family, she was allegedly killed after she declined to comply with her husband’s monetary demands, with initial investigations suggesting that Harichand may have strangled her using a piece of cloth.
Puja’s maternal uncle, Goutam Biswas, was among the first to speak out. He stated that Rishi would routinely demand money from Puja, that the two had married without the family’s consent and that none of their relatives had initially accepted the union.
Biswas added that the family had only come to accept the couple after learning of Puja’s pregnancy and that Harichand was unemployed, which led to repeated monetary demands from his wife. That Puja a pregnant woman whose family had only recently extended goodwill was allegedly killed in the very home that was supposed to shelter her makes this case all the more devastating.
How the Body Was Traced By The Police
On the day of the incident, Mondal’s family became alarmed when they were unable to contact her. They visited her in-laws’ residence that afternoon but found no trace of her and subsequently notified the police, who located her body hidden under the bed. It was later reported that Rishi Harichand, along with his mother and another relative, surrendered at the police station.
The body has been sent for a post-mortem examination to establish the precise cause of death and authorities have confirmed that the investigation is ongoing. No senior police officials have issued a formal public statement as yet, though the Ghola Police Station, under whose jurisdiction the area falls, has confirmed the arrests and the registration of a murder case.
A District, A Pattern and a Silence That Costs Lives
This case emerges from North 24 Parganas, the most populous district in West Bengal and among the ten largest in the country by population, a district that has repeatedly made headlines for crimes against women within domestic settings.
The alleged killing of a pregnant woman, reportedly rooted in financial coercion by an unemployed husband, reflects a grim and recurring pattern across India where women face violence when they are unable or unwilling to meet unreasonable monetary demands. Experts and women’s rights advocates have long highlighted that such abuse rarely begins with physical violence, it most commonly starts with financial control, social isolation and the erosion of a woman’s sense of safety within her own marriage. In Puja’s case, the warning signs were reportedly present for two years.
The Logical Indian’s Perspective
The alleged murder of Puja Mondal, a young woman six months pregnant, killed in her own home, her body hidden as though her life meant nothing, is not merely a crime story. It is a mirror held up to a society that too often looks away when a woman in distress reaches out for help. Financial harassment within marriage is a form of domestic abuse and it must be treated as such by families, communities and the law. Justice for Puja demands not only accountability for those arrested, but a deeper reckoning with the culture of silence that allows such violence to fester.
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A pregnant woman was allegedly strangled by her husband following a monetary dispute in #WestBengal's North 24 Parganas district.#Crime #CrimeNews https://t.co/fyXWE8a3w8
— IndiaToday (@IndiaToday) March 20, 2026
