Guard kills 25-year-old Mumbai lawyer as revenge for rebuke

Mumbai: The watchman of an apartment block in central Mumbai has confessed to murdering 25-year-old lawyer Pallavi Purkayastha by slitting her throat because she had rebuked him, police sources said on Friday, a day after the killing. Sajjad Pathan, the guard, would be produced in court Friday, an officer said. Puryakastha, the daughter of Delhi-based Indian Administrative Service (IAS) official Atanu Puryakastha, had had a tiff with Pathan over an issue in the society and rebuked him. In the early hours of Thursday, he slit her throat to seek revenge for his humiliation, police sources said. [caption id=“attachment_413678” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Pallavi Purkayastha. Image courtesy: Facebook.[/caption] According to police, the murder was committed around 1.30 am after two electricians, who had come to restore power at Purkayastha’s apartment that had gone off at around 12.30 am, left the place. Sources also say that Pathan had tampered with the power supply of her apartment so that he could take advantage of the dark to seek revenge. Purkayastha, a legal advisor, was found in a pool of blood by her boyfriend Avik Sengupta early Thursday. Sengupta is also a lawyer by profession and worked for another firm in Mumbai. She was found with her throat slit and had multiple injuries on her face, hands and eyes, police said. A post-mortem of her body was carried out and her parents, who had come down from Delhi have been handed over her body, police said. “The boyfriend is also being questioned,” an official said, adding that they needed to corroborate and authenticate the events of what had happened. Police will make an official statement regarding the killer and the events that led to the murder. Sources claimed that Pathan molested Purkayastha and attempted to rape her. However, police officers refused to confirm or deny this. While reconstructing the crime, police also found that Purkayastha struggled against her murderer and tried to seek help of neighbours.