Pune Police have arrested a Bengaluru-based friend of the 23-year-old woman software engineer, who was stabbed to death barely metres away from her office on the outskirts of the city last Friday, after he allegedly admitted to his role in the crime.
Police officials involved in the investigation said Santosh Kumar, who was picked up from Bengaluru and brought to Pune on Monday for further questioning, admitted his role in the crime on Wednesday.
“During the interrogation, Santosh Kumar gave us information related to the crime. We have now arrested him,” additional superintendent of police Rajkumar Shinde told Hindustan Times.
Antara Das, who was from Kolkata and worked with Capgemini in Talawade near Pune, was stabbed to death at KNB square at Talawade.
Read | Pune techie stabbed to death: Cops hunt for friend who ‘proposed’ to victim
Sources said 24-year-old Kumar initially told the interrogators he was in Bengaluru when Das was attacked and that another person carried out the murder. This led to the police working on the other leads too.
Antara’s family, however, expressed suspicion about the possible role of Kumar in her murder. Based on the family’s suspicion, the police began their investigation and a team went to Bengaluru to grill him.
{{/usCountry}}Antara’s family, however, expressed suspicion about the possible role of Kumar in her murder. Based on the family’s suspicion, the police began their investigation and a team went to Bengaluru to grill him.
{{/usCountry}}“This is a shock as to me as a father. When I enquired with my younger daughter about Antara, she told me that she was being harassed by a boy and I suspect his involvement in this case,” her father Debananda Das said.
She had met Kumar during her training in Bengaluru. He had even come to Pune when she was scheduled to appear for an interview for Capgemini and allegedly threatened to kill her.
“As far as we know, the man had proposed to Antara in Bangalore which she turned down. He then came down to Pune with the same request. Although she had informed us about the man, we did not lodge a complaint because we did not think he can go to the extent of murder,” Panchanan Das, her uncle in Kolkata, said.
On the day when she was murdered, Antara did not avail the company’s bus service saying she would take an auto rickshaw to Nigadi where she lived as a paying guest. However, she did not take an auto rickshaw and was walking to a friend’s place nearby when she was attacked.
A motorcyclist Satyendra Sinha and another passerby took her to a nearby hospital where she was declared dead on arrival.
Sinha told the police that he could see the attacker, wearing a T-shirt with black and blue stripes, fleeing the spot.