A security guard on Friday has confessed to the murder of a 25-year-old woman lawyer, who was found with multiple stab wounds, in her rented apartment in Mumbai's Wadala area a day earlier.
Sajjad Pathan, who works in the same apartment complex, was arrested following his confession to the police.
The victim identified as Purkayastha was found dead at her 16th floor apartment in 'Himalayan Heights' building at Wadala. She was living with her live-in partner Avik Sengupta, who is also a lawyer, Additional Police Commissioner Praveen Salunkhe said.
"Pallavi's body had multiple stab injuries. The scene of crime indicates she struggled to save herself. When Avik returned home on Thursday morning at around 5:30 AM, he found that the door was slightly opened...he went inside and found the blood-soaked body of Pallavi with the throat slit, following which he informed the police," Salunkhe said.
According to NDTV, Pathan was obsessed with Purkayastha and was stalking her for more than two weeks. The guard also confessed that he first attempted to rape her before stabbing her to death.
Shortly before the murder, Purkayastha called her boyfriend Sengupta saying that there was no electricity in the flat. She then complained about the issue to on-duty security guard Pathan, who brought an electrician to her apartment, police said.
After getting the connection fixed, Pathan disconnected the main fuse in an attempt to go back to Purkayastha's apartment. On his second visit to her flat, the guard tried to rape her.
In a bid to save her own life, Purkayastha ran to all the rooms in her flat and even outside to the corridor of her home. Her bloodstains were found at multiple locations in the apartment and in the corridor.
Pathan stabbed her several times and slit her throat leaving her to die. "He told us that he could not control himself and murdered her as she resisted his advances," the Indian Express quoted a police official as saying.
When Sengupta reached home at around 5.30 am he discovered her body and immediately called the police. Along with Pathan, authorities have also arrested the electrician who went to Purkayastha house for the repair works and have recovered the murder weapon from the guard.
Purkayastha was working with Farhan Akhtar's Excel Entertainment Private Ltd as a legal adviser. Her parents are both IAS officers living in Delhi, where her father Atanu Purkayastha is a joint secretary in the union agriculture ministry.
