RAIPUR A 25-year-old man who allegedly killed a 20-year-old woman in Chhattisgarh’s Korba on December 24 by stabbing her multiple times had been threatening her family members after she refused to pick up his phone calls, and flew from Ahmedabad to Raipur and then drove to Korba before committing the murder, Chhattisgarh police said on Wednesday.
Police officials said on Tuesday that the woman had been stabbed as many as 51 times, likely with a screwdriver, but added that they were waiting for forensic reports to ascertain more details. The accused has yet to be arrested, with raids ongoing in Gujarat and Chhattisgarh, police said.
Abhishek Verma, additional superintendent of police, Korba, said that on December 23, a day before the stabbing, the accused had called the woman’s mother and told her that her daughter was in a relationship with another man.
“He threatened her of dire consequences. On the same day, he took a flight from Ahmedabad to Raipur, and reached Korba by road where he checked in at Shalin Lodge for the night,” he said.
Verma said that the next morning, he went to the woman’s house after 8.30am, when no other family member was present. “Prima facie we believe that both of them got into a fight over the issue of the relationship and then the man stabbed the girl multiple times with a sharp and pointed object, possibly a screwdriver,” said the SP.
{{/usCountry}}Verma said that the next morning, he went to the woman’s house after 8.30am, when no other family member was present. “Prima facie we believe that both of them got into a fight over the issue of the relationship and then the man stabbed the girl multiple times with a sharp and pointed object, possibly a screwdriver,” said the SP.
{{/usCountry}}The exact number of wounds will be ascertained after the post-mortem report is obtained, the official said. On Tuesday, however, Santosh Singh, Superintendent of Police, Korba, said the “accused covered her mouth with a pillow and stabbed her 51 times with a screwdriver”.
While the accused is yet to be arrested, police have recovered his shirt from the spot, which contained a copy of the air ticket he used to fly to Raipur.
Police officials said the man hails from Jashpur district in Chhattisgarh, which neighbours Korba, and worked as a bus conductor a year ago when he met the victim. “Both the girl and the boy met at some point in this time when she used to commute to Madanpur by bus. They were in a relationship for close to a year,” a senior official said.
But six months ago, the man moved to Ahmedabad for work. “When he was in Ahmedabad, he began to suspect that the girl was in another relationship, and started threatening both her family and her. It seems that the girl was not picking up his phone calls for the past few weeks,” a senior officer said.
Shiv Kumar Dhari, the investigating officer in the case, said that the accused had even threatened the woman’s 12-year-old brother when she was avoiding him. “The victim and her family members never lodged any complaint to police or told anyone else about this,” said Dhari.