A message on the wall nailed IIT ‘killer’

Neighbours thought of him as a slightly eccentric but harmless man who loved playing with children. On October 26, police arrested the reportedly mild-mannered, 34-year-old research scholar for allegedly strangling to death and then burning a 19-year-old girl who did not give in to his sexual advances. HT reports.

Neighbours thought of him as a slightly eccentric but harmless man who loved playing with children. On October 26, police arrested the reportedly mild-mannered, 34-year-old research scholar for allegedly strangling to death and then burning a 19-year-old girl who did not give in to his sexual advances.

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It seems now that the writing about Pushpum Kumar Sinha was always on the wall.

It was the disturbing scribblings on the wall of his dark and claustrophobic one-room flat in A-Block Munirka, which pointed south Dehi police towards Sinha.

How did they nab him?

"The first thing we saw as we entered the flat was some words on the wall: …(A)aj tera kaam tamaam' (Today I will kill you)," said a senior police officer on the condition of anonymity, as he is not authorised to speak to the media.

“Earlier on Saturday, when we were questioning every tenant in the building, Sinha did not come out of his room. We called him out and he claimed he was in his room listening to music at the time of the murder and did not hear anything.”

When police returned to the spot on Sunday, they learnt Sinha had been stalking the accused.

The police waited for Sinha to return and asked him to open his room. After they saw the writing, police said they took Sinha in for questioning. Sinha allegedly confessed to the crime.

On October 24, police had discovered the partially burnt body of Ramchanphy Hongray—a 19 year old Naga girl from Manipur who'd been visiting her sister in Munirka, South Delhi, for the past month—in the kitchen of her flat.

Warning signs

“The victim's sister told us Sinha used to stare at them,” said Deputy Commissioner of Police (South) H GS Dhaliwal. The police said Sinha claimed the victim once smiled at him that made him think she was ready to give in to his advances.

Rangam Chiru, member of the Naga Student's Union Delhi said, “The sisters were supposed to go to Manipur on December 11 for the Christmas holidays.”