Ex-partner stabs woman to death, say police

Videos released by the police show the accused, identified by the police as Dinakar Banala, sitting next to the body in a pool of blood.

Police arrested a 28-year-old man for stabbing a 25-year-old woman 16 times in public view outside her office in Murugeshpalya, east Bengaluru, on Tuesday, officials said on Wednesday, adding the victim and the accused were former lovers.

Police arrested a 28-year-old man for stabbing a 25-year-old woman 16 times in public view outside her office in Bengaluru (Agencies/Representative use)

Videos released by the police show the accused, identified by the police as Dinakar Banala, sitting next to the body in a pool of blood.

Police identified the woman as Leela Pavithra Nalamati, a native of Kakinada in Andhra Pradesh. She was working with a BPO run by a private healthcare management company in Bengaluru, police said.

According to police, Leela, an MSc graduate, moved to Bengaluru around five years ago after getting a job offer and was living in a paying guest facility in Jeevan Bhima Nagar in the city.

The accused Banala, a healthcare worker from Srikakulam, Andhra Pradesh, worked with the victim around three years ago, said police.

According to the police, Dinakar and Leela had been in a relationship for five years and planned to get married.

“Leela presented the proposal before her parents. However, they were against the marriage, saying Dinakar was from a lower caste. They continued their relationship for a while, but she said that they ended the relationship as there was no future,” said DCP (east) Bheemashankar S Guled.

After Leela told him she wouldn’t marry him, he became upset. The police said CCTV footage shows him waiting outside the gates of Leela’s company. The visuals didn’t show that he was holding any weapons, they added.

“Around 7.30 pm while she was leaving, he tried to engage her in conversation, but when she refused to entertain him, he took out a knife and, in full view of everyone, stabbed her more than 16 times,” said a senior investigator.

Jeevan Bhima Nagar Police rushed to the spot after they were informed of the murder by eyewitnesses and arrested Dinakar. The visuals showed Dinakar sitting beside the body.

The DCP said that Banala has been booked on charges of murder under section 302 and has been sent to judicial custody. The victim’s post-mortem has been conducted the famuly has left for their hometown with the body, he added.

Earlier this month, an 18-year-old girl was brutally killed by her spurned lover after she allegedly refused to marry him. The incident was reported from Solapur Lake near Bidar town in Karnataka where a para-medical student, Shivaleela, was strangulated and killed by Srinivas. During the investigation, it came to light that Srinivas was stalking Shivaleela for over six months. He even threatened the girl that he would kill her if she did not marry him.

In a similar incident, a college student was found dead with her throat slashed on the outskirts of Bengaluru on January 18. The 20-year-old female student of a college in Yelahanka, who was pursuing first year BA, was allegedly murdered by a stalker when she was returning home in Rajankunte, police said.

The deceased has been identified as Rashi, a resident of Shanboganahalli village. She had left the college on a bus and got off near Dibbur where she was attacked while walking back home by the stalker and his associate riding a bike. They slashed her throat and left her bleeding on the road and fled.

On January 2, a stalker stabbed an engineering student to death on the college premises for rejecting his marriage proposal, police said. The incident occurred at the Presidency University College in Itgalur near Rajankunte. The deceased was identified as Layasmitha, 19, pursuing her first year of B tech. Accused Pavan Kalyan, 21, a BCA student at Nrupatunga University, also stabbed himself after the crime.