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Victim Kriti Kumari.
Credit: DH Photo
Bengaluru: Kriti Kumari, the 24-year-old woman from Bihar who was brutally stabbed to death in her paying guest accommodation in southeast Bengaluru's Koramangala, paid the price for protecting her friend from harassment by the assailant, a police probe has revealed.
The suspect, Abhishek Ghosi (24), was in a relationship with Kriti's friend and colleague.
According to police sources, Ghosi allegedly used to abuse his girlfriend. To protect her friend from Ghosi, Kriti helped her move to a new place. The police probe revealed that Ghosi was furious over the development and decided to eliminate Kriti.
Around 11:15 pm on Tuesday, Ghosi entered the Bhargavi Staying Homes For Ladies in Venkatareddy Layout, climbed to Kriti's third floor room and knocked on her door.
When Kriti opened the door, he forced his way in and attacked her. Kriti resisted him and ran out of the room. The assailant followed her and stabbed Kriti multiple times before slitting her throat and fleeing to his hometown in Madhya Pradesh.
Bengaluru city police commissioner B Dayananda told DH that the assailant was detained in Madhya Pradesh and was brought to Bengaluru using a transit warrant.
Another senior police officer told DH that Ghosi is a native of Begumganj in Madhya Pradesh's Raisen district. "Soon after the murder, we identified Ghosi as the assailant and gathered details about him. We anticipated Ghosi would go back to his hometown and dispatched a police team to Raisen," the officer told DH. The investigators detained him as soon as he alighted from a bus at Raisen.
The police team detained him at 12:30 pm on Friday and obtained a transit warrant after producing him before the local magistrate. He was flown to Bengaluru and landed here at 11 am Saturday. The police produced Ghosi before a magistrate court in Bengaluru and obtained his custody for 10 days.
Childhood love
Piecing together inputs from various sources, including in the police, DH has learnt that Ghosi and Kriti's friend were in love since childhood. The woman moved to Bengaluru after landing a job and worked with Kriti in the sales and marketing wing of a private company.
Ghosi moved to Bengaluru and rented a flat but had no friends or a job. His girlfriend often stayed with him at his place.
The couple began to have disagreements and quarreled often with Ghosi later getting violent and even abusing her. Alarmed by this, Kriti, who was witness to some of these episodes, shifted her friend to another place to save her from Ghosi's harassment.
The police, who are yet to find the murder weapon, are questioning Ghosi. They are likely to take Ghosi for a spot mahazar.