Bengaluru police have nabbed an 18-year-old neighbour on Sunday in connection with the now suspected premeditated murder of a woman software professional whose body was found in her apartment about a week ago.
The cause of death for the woman, identified as 34-year-old Sharmila, was initially believed to be a fire triggered by an electrical short circuit, the police said. But a week after the investigation began, the cops zeroed in on and arrested her teen neighbour, identified as 18-year-old Karnal Kurai, originally a resident of Kerala.
The motive
The accused allegedly killed the victim as she refused his sexual advances. The teen confessed to the crime during the police investigation and told the cops that he entered the victim’s house around 9 PM on January 3 through a sliding window with the intention of seeking sexual favours, PTI reported.
When the victim resisted, he allegedly forcefully covered her mouth and nose until she became semi-conscious. The struggle also caused the victim to sustain bleeding injuries.
Police stated that in an attempt to destroy evidence, the accused placed the victim’s clothes and other incriminating materials on the bedroom mattress and set them on fire before fleeing the scene. He also allegedly stole the victim’s mobile phone while escaping.
The accused has been booked under Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) sections 103(1) (murder), 64(2), 66, and 238 (destruction of evidence) after his confession, NDTV reported.
The initial investigation
The victim, originally from Kavoor in Mangaluru, had been living in an apartment at Subramanya Layout in Ramamurthy Nagar, Bengaluru, for about a year and a half, along with a friend. She worked for the IT firm Accenture and was on leave, alone at home, as her roommate had travelled to her hometown.
The incident occurred late on January 3, around 11 PM, when a fire broke out in one of the rooms of the apartment, filling the house with thick smoke. Fire and emergency services rushed to the spot after neighbours alerted the police, doused the flames and shifted the body for a post-mortem examination. At the time, investigators suspected that a short circuit had caused the fire, leading to death by suffocation, HT had earlier reported.
“At first glance, everything pointed towards an accidental fire caused by an electrical short circuit. There were no visible signs of foul play,” Ramamurthy Nagar police inspector GJ Sathish said.
How the probe flipped
That assessment changed after forensic findings challenged the initial conclusion. The post-mortem report and analysis by the Forensic Science Laboratory revealed inconsistencies at the scene, prompting investigators to suspect that the fire had been deliberately set to destroy evidence, as earlier reported by HT.
“As the investigation progressed, it became clear that this was not an accident but a planned murder made to look like a fire mishap. The accused attempted to create a false narrative of an electrical fire to mislead investigators,” Sathish said.
The police have said that the arrest was made on the basis of strong technical and circumstantial evidence
“Evidence suggests the accused had planned the murder in advance and used fire as a cover-up,” the officer said.