A surprising incident has come to light in Bengaluru, Karnataka. Where the police has arrested an 18-year-old boy on charges of murder. He is suspected of the premeditated murder of a female software professional, whose dead body was found in her apartment about a week ago.
Police said that the cause of death of 34-year-old woman named Sharmila was initially believed to be a fire caused by an electrical short circuit. But a week after the investigation began, the police arrested her teenage neighbour, identified as 18-year-old Colonel Kurai, originally from Kerala.
The accused allegedly murdered the victim because she had rejected his sexual advances. The teenager confessed to the crime during police investigation and told police that he had entered the victim’s house through a sliding window with the intention of having sex at around 9 pm on January 3, PTI reported. Police said that in an attempt to destroy the evidence, the accused placed the victim’s clothes and other incriminating items on the bedroom mattress and set them on fire before fleeing the spot. While fleeing, he also allegedly stole the victim’s mobile phone.
Following the confession of the accused, he has been booked under sections 103(1) (murder), 64(2), 66, and 238 (destruction of evidence) of the Indian Justice Code (BNS).
What is the whole matter?
The victim, who was originally from Kavur in Mangaluru, was living in an apartment with a friend in Subramanya Layout in Ramamurthy Nagar, Bengaluru for the last one and a half years. She worked at IT company Accenture and was on leave, alone at home as her roommate had gone to her hometown.
When the victim protested, he allegedly forcefully held her mouth and nose until she became unconscious. In this scuffle the victim also got injured and started bleeding.
The incident occurred around 11 pm on January 3, when a fire broke out in a room of the apartment, filling the entire house with thick smoke. After neighbors informed the police, fire and emergency services reached the spot, extinguished the fire and sent the body for post-mortem. At the time, investigators suspected that a short circuit had caused the fire, leading to death by suffocation, HT had earlier reported. Ramamurthy Nagar police inspector GJ Sathish said, “At first glance, everything pointed towards the fire being caused by an electrical short circuit. There were no signs of any foul play.”
This assessment changed when forensic investigation results challenged the initial conclusion. The post-mortem report and analysis by the Forensic Science Laboratory revealed irregularities at the scene, leading investigators to suspect that the fire was deliberately set to destroy evidence, as HT had earlier reported. “As the investigation progressed, it became clear that this was not an accident but a premeditated murder which was attempted to be made to look like a fire incident. The accused tried to create a false story of an electrical fire to mislead the investigators,” Satish said.
Police have said that the arrest has been made on the basis of strong technical and circumstantial evidence.
“The evidence shows that the accused had planned the murder in advance and used fire to hide the evidence,” the officer said.