Hyderabad woman stabbed to death at her London home, police yet to charge anyone

Tejaswini’s family had been informed and the police said they were waiting for the post-mortem examination, scheduled for Wednesday.

A 27-year-old Indian woman from Hyderabad was stabbed to death in her apartment in London’s Wembley area on Tuesday night, and a 23-year-old Brazilian national is in police custody in connection with the murder, the Metropolitan Police said on Wednesday.

Kontham Tejaswini.

Police, however, are yet to charge anyone in the case. The incident happened at 10pm (BST) on Tuesday and the victim has been identified as Kontham Tejaswini, a young professional from Hyderabad.

“Despite the efforts of emergency services, Tejaswini sadly died at the scene,” police said in a statement. Another 28-year-old woman was taken to the hospital with stab injuries that were later assessed as not life-threatening. Police did not provide details of the woman’s identity.

After the incident, the Metropolitan Police issued an appeal to the public to help trace Keven Antonio Lourence De Morais, a 23-year-old Brazilian national. Keven was arrested on Tuesday evening from Harrow in the Greater London area but a police spokesperson told HT that he has not been charged yet, and remains in custody at a North London police station.

The police also arrested a second man, 24, and a woman, 23, from the scene of the crime on suspicion of murder. The woman was later released. The man was released on bail on Wednesday.

“This has been a fast-moving investigation,” said detective chief inspector Linda Bradley, from the Met’s Specialist Crime Command, adding that “a dedicated team of detectives are working hard to establish exactly what happened.”

There was little clarity on the sequence of events and the motive behind the murder. Tejaswini’s family had been informed and the police said they were waiting for the post-mortem examination, scheduled for Wednesday.

“We learnt about the incident this morning. We don’t know when it happened,” Tejaswini’s father told an Indian news channel, PTI reported, on Wednesday. She had moved to London three years ago and completed her master’s degree, he said. There were reports that said Tejaswini was a student at the University of Nottingham, but a spokesperson at the institution told HT that they could not immediately confirm this.

“We were planning her marriage. She said she will return after the alliance is finalised. She had resigned from her temporary job and said she will come back after working for another month,” her father said.

The victim’s uncle had requested the government to make necessary arrangements to bring her body from the UK to Hyderabad, PTI reported.

The stabbing took place in an area with a highly density of families of Indian origin and is a matter of concern to the community.

Krupesh Hirani, London Assembly member for Brent and Harrow told HT, “I am of course incredibly sad to learn that a woman has lost her life as a result of a fatal stabbing in Wembley. I have been in touch with the Borough Commander to seek reassurances in relation to the investigation and the wider impact on the community.”

In a separate incident, an Indian-origin 19-year-old medical student was named on Wednesday as one of three victims of a frenzied series of knife attacks on the streets of Nottingham in central England.

Grace O’Malley Kumar was with a fellow University of Nottingham student – Barnaby Webber, 19 – when the unnamed attacker is said to have fatally stabbed the duo in the early hours of Tuesday. Nottinghamshire Police said the 31-year-old suspect, who remains in custody, then went on to stab a man in his 60s to death and also attempted to run over three people – still in hospital – with a van stolen from that man.

In a statement to the UK parliament, home secretary Suella Braverman said the incident was not being treated as a terrorist attack at this stage.

“I can tell the House that the police are working flat out to establish the full facts and provide support to everyone affected. They are currently keeping an open mind as to the motives behind these attacks but I can confirm Nottinghamshire police are being assisted in their inquiries by counter terror police. Though, this does not mean that it is currently being treated as a terrorist attack,” said Braverman.

The minister said a knife was used in the attacks, two of the victims were students at Nottingham University and the third victim – a local school caretaker Ian Coates in his 60s – was the owner of the van that police believe the suspect stole and was used to run down three pedestrians who remain in hospital.

Kumar was said to be a brilliant student and had represented England in under-16 and under-18 hockey teams. Her father Dr Sanjoy Kumar is a medical practitioner based in London and was awarded Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) for saving the lives of three teens who were stabbed in a gang attack in 2009.