Twenty two-year-old watchman Sajjad Moghul, who has been arrested for the murder of advocate Pallavi Purkayastha, had stalked her for over a fortnight, before he entered into her house using her flat key.
According to crime branch officers, Moghul had developed an “obsessive lust” for Purkayastha, and had been planning to rape her. He knew that her live-in partner Avik Sengupta worked late hours, and used it to his advantage on Thursday.
When Purkayastha reached home at around 11 pm on August 8, she found that there was no electricity at home. She immediately sent a BBM to Mr Sengupta, who asked her to call the local electrician.
“Purkayastha called the electrician, who came home with Moghul, and left after fixing the problem. However, sometime later, the power went off again. Anxious, Purkayastha called for the electrician again. This time around, Moghul, who had again accompanied the electrician, stole the keys to the flat from the key rack,” said joint commissioner of police (crime) Himanshu Roy.
During interrogation, Moghul said that he had deliberately manipulated the meter box located on the ground floor. “Moghul went to the flat again, after Purkayastha had gone off to sleep,” Mr Roy said.
According to the officers, when Moghul tried to rape her, Purkayastha put on a brave fight. Furious, Moghul killed her with a knife that he was carrying.
“Moghul then hid the knife below a shoe rack on the third floor, changed his clothes and jumped off from the garden fence so that his colleagues would not see him,” Mr Roy said. The police has booked Moghul under Sections 302 and 354 of the IPC.