Mother Sumanta Bansi about disaster year: “I want to know why he killed my daughter”

Emotionally, Sharmila sends a photo. “This was at Zanderij airport in Suriname. September 3, 2016, the day she left for the Netherlands. Look how proud she looks.” It would be the last time she would see her daughter alive.

Christmas, New Years Eve: normal holidays for Sharmila and her family. But she doesn’t need it. “For me, these are normal days that have to pass. I don’t want to decorate my house, no Christmas tree. I am no longer the Sharmila of five years ago and I also see a psychiatrist. I can’t work yet.”

She remembers how Sumanta left for the Netherlands in 2016 to study there. Sharmila was proud. “I was looking forward to the moment she would graduate and that I would be there. But now I had to come to the Netherlands to pick up her bones.”

Lied for years about Sumanta’s fate

Back to February 2018. Sumanta, 23 years old, suddenly seems to have disappeared from the face of the earth. Sharmila has contact with Manodj B. from Suriname. Sumanta lives with him and his family in Hoorn. “They lied to me all these years. Every time I called there was something different. First she was in Dubai, then in Belgium and then in The Hague. They said: ‘Don’t worry.’ But I kept looking, because normally she called me very often,” says Sharmila.

After more than two years, Manodj B. and his father Dwarka B. are arrested as suspects. In conversations overheard by the police, Manodj says he stabbed Sumanta to death. “I went through her heart with that thing. Dead, done,” he told his brother.

Despite many searches, including at the Afsluitdijk, in the Robbenoordbos in Wieringerwerf and later on too recreation area de Hulk in BerkhoutSumanta is not found.

At the time of the disappearance, Sumanta was pregnant by Manodj B., with whom she had a secret relationship. Under pressure, she had previously had an abortion, but this time she wants to keep the child.

In June of this year, Sharmila will be in court with Sumanta’s father. A few meters away from Manodj and Dwarka B. “You have to behave in court, but I lost myself. I screamed and wanted to throw things. But I held back.” In the end, she manages to read an emotional victim impact statement.

View part of the victim impact statement here. Text continues below:

‘Those bastards killed Sumanta’

Dwarka B. is acquitted because there is no evidence that he was an accomplice. Manodj B. is sentenced to 15 years in prison. “It didn’t happen suddenly. It was premeditated. And he didn’t do this alone. Dwarka also played a role. I hope that comes out of investigations too. Those bastards, those devils killed me Sumanta. That I know for sure.”

The fact that Sumanta was pregnant with her first grandchild also makes her extra sad. “That you also killed the child you processed yourself. What kind of man are you? He’s a monster.”

But one big question remains unanswered: where is Sumanta’s body? Manodj B. denies everything and is especially silent during the trial. But a few months after the verdict, in September, he still designates a place. On the edge of the Hoorn 80 industrial estate.

Text continues below the photo.

Called at night about where Sumanta was

“It was 4:00 am when the phone rang. I answered and it was the family detective. He said: ‘You will hear something later. The killer wants to explain and point out the place’. I was scared to death. I couldn’t do anything more. Just cry and scream.”

On the spot body remains are found. Research shows that they are indeed from Sumanta. A few days after the find, Sharmila and Sumanta’s father are in the Netherlands and lay a wreath at the location. “It was the hardest in my life.”

Despite being discouraged, Sharmila insists on seeing the remains. “Sumanta is part of me. I want to see it with my naked eyes. And do you know how I recognized Sumanta? By her teeth. Her teeth gleamed. Then I knew it was her and all I could do was scream and to cry.”

A funeral service follows in the Netherlands. The parents then return to Suriname with the body and the jewelry found there from Sumanta, where they say goodbye in the traditional way. “The evening before the cremation, Sumanta was laid out in my house. We sang, prayed and talked a lot. The day after was the cremation. And we did many rituals. In March, six months later, we performed even more rituals. by a saint.”

‘She was killed in her sleep’

The sadness, but also the anger has not diminished. Certainly not now that Manodj B. has started talking after his conviction. “He has stated that he killed Sumanta in her sleep. He suddenly talks a lot. He talks like a parrot, because he thinks he will get a reduced sentence. But no, that is really not possible.”

Next year, Manodj B. will also appeal against his sentence. Sharmila definitely wants to be there. “Then I will come back to the Netherlands. I don’t know how yet, because I have no money for a ticket. But I will be there.”

Memorial stone for Sumanta

She also hopes that the memorial stone will be unveiled then. “I have heard that a memorial stone will be placed at the site. I would also like to be there.” There are also plans to place a butterfly on the butterfly rock in Hoorn. The Memorial to Victims of Violence.

And then she also hopes to get an answer to her last question. “Why did he do this? I want to know. But he doesn’t say that yet. Why did he kill Sumanta? He had no right to.”

In the meantime, she hopes to be able to pick up her life again, as good and as bad as it goes. “I walk a lot and do something in the garden. But that’s all I can do. I was a doctor’s assistant, but couldn’t afford it anymore. After that I was a bus driver on a school bus. But because of the medicines I can’t drive anymore.”

She continues: “The empty chair here in the room remains empty. I still have a lot of memories and stuff from Sumanta. People say to me: ‘You have to give it a place and live on’. But it’s not that easy. I fight to become the old Sharmila, but I can’t do it yet.”