Delhi: Advocate held for murdering nurse

Police said the advocate, Vishwabandhu, 34, was in a relationship with the nurse since 2007. According to the autopsy report, the nurse was murdered on September 17 night, three days before her brother found her body.

An advocate from Sonepat in Haryana has been arrested for the murder of a nurse who was found dead in a bathroom of Lok Nayak Hospital’s staff quarters on Sunday.

Police said the advocate, Vishwabandhu, 34, was in a relationship with the nurse since 2007. According to the autopsy report, the nurse was murdered on September 17 night, three days before her brother found her body.

An investigating officer said Vishwabandhu — who was married — killed the nurse because she was pressuring him to marry her.

“The advocate was sexually exploiting the nurse on the pretext of marriage. After a seven-year-long relationship, he married another woman and that was why the victim felt cheated. The two also had differences over money,” said the investigating officer.

The nurse first met Vishwabandhu when she had approached him to fight a legal battle against her husband and in-laws to secure the custody of her 14-year-old son.

Both the nurse and the advocate were informally separated from their respective partners at that time. While the woman had filed a dowry harassment case against her husband and in-laws in 2005, Vishwabandhu was allegedly facing a similar case filed by his first wife, the investigating officer said.

Alok Kumar, additional commissioner of police (central), said the nurse visited her parents’ home in Sonepat every Saturday. When she failed to turn up last Saturday and did not respond to phone calls, her brother rushed to her residence in Delhi.

“The door was latched from outside. He opened the door to find his sister lying dead in the bathroom,” said Kumar. A murder case was registered.

Investigators examined the nurse’s call details and found that she frequently dialed the advocate. She had talked to him four to five hours before her death.

“Investigations revealed that there was a transaction of over R3 lakh from the nurse’s account to the advocate’s account. Vishwabandhu was picked up for interrogation. He initially tried to mislead us but later confessed to the crime after being confronted with evidence,” the officer added.