Man tries to save girlfriend from harassers, beaten to death

KOLKATA: A 29-year-old man was beaten to death in New Town's Gouranganar after he confronted three goons harassing his live-in partner - who had left home in a huff after a spat - near their rented home on in the early hours of Thursday.
The trio, local strongmen, continued to assault Sanket Chatterjee even as his girlfriend pleaded with them and later knocked on doors in the Khudiram Pally neighbourhood for help, with none coming to her aid. The distraught woman then called up friends and relatives, who informed the police and rushed to the spot. Cops took Sanket to a govt hospital, where he died around 8 am.
The three men - Sambhu Mandal, Sagar Das, and Raju Ghosh - were nabbed from a hideout by noon and booked for murder.
The victim's sister, Mahima, said minutes after Sanket's 23-year-old girlfriend left home following a heated argument, her brother went looking for her, concerned about her safety as the time was 2.30 am. By then the woman had been accosted by the three men who were loitering outside their home. The inebriated men began harassing her, with one of them grabbing her arm and trying to drag her away. Her screams alerted Sanket, who rushed to her aid. "He managed to free her, but one of them hit him with a brick and then the others joined in and started beating him with bamboo staff," Mahima said. The assault continued for several minutes even as the woman pleaded with the men to spare them and then went from door to door seeking help.

Sanket was an AC technician and had been living in Gouranganagar with his girlfriend for the past year and a half. "They were to get married soon, with both families having agreed to the match," she said mournfully.