Bengaluru: Friend murders IBM techie with charging cable, arrested

Police say the victim had met the murderer on social media three months ago.

Bengaluru

: Police arrested a man from Haryana on Thursday, for allegedly killing a 31-year-old woman who was found murdered at her flat in an upscale apartment complex in Kadugodi on Tuesday night.

The accused, Sukhbir Singh, had befriended the victim, Kusum Singla, on social media three months ago and the incident took place after he met her at the flat for the first time, Bengaluru police said today.

Kusum Rani Singla, a native of Barnala district in Punjab, was working as a software engineer with IBM in Whitefield and resided along with her female flat-mate in flat no. 507, on the fourth floor of Mahaveer King’s Place in Kadugodi. Kusum had come to the city around six months ago, before which she was working in Gurgaon near Delhi, the police said.

According to the police, the incident came to light when Kusum’s flat-mate Nidhi Sharma, who worked for Intel, returned from her work around 8 pm. She found the flat door open and Kusum was lying on the floor motionless with blood spilled around.

“It looked like the victim was strangulated using a wire. There were few injuries inflicted to her neck with a sharp object with blood oozing out from her nose, mouth and neck. Our men have recovered the mobile charger wire from the crime spot, but not the sharp object,” said a senior investigating officer.

Nidhi informed her neighbours and her friends, who rushed to the flat and informed the police. Kadugodi police rushed to the spot and cordoned off the entire flat after which blood samples and hair strands were collected from the crime scene by the forensic team. Fingerprint teams too were busy collecting evidence. They had obtained the CCTV camera footage to ascertain the identity of the suspect. There was also no forced entry, leading police to the conclusion that the assailant was known to the victim.

The body was shifted to Vydehi Hospital for post-mortem and her family members were informed, who are on the way to the city, police added. On Tuesday, Kusum Rani did not go to office and was at home the accused was meeting her.

“When the visitor did not do his entry at the security gate and was waiting for her down, it was Kusum who had come down from her flat speaking over a phone, who took him to the security and made him undego the entry formality,” said a senior police officer, who had made inquiries with the victim’s neighbours on Tuesday night.

According to the police, Kusum had earlier lodged a cheating complaint in December last year on a person whom she got acquainted with on Shaadi.com. She alleged in her complaint that the man had contacted her on the pretext of marrying her, but started asking her for money.

“Once she transferred the money online to him, he blocked all communications with her, including e-mails, phone, and Whatsapp accounts, which prompted Kusum to lodge a complaint with the Kadugodi police,” a senior police officer said.