Woman techie from Nagpur gang raped and killed, police arrest friends for crime

The accused, who reportedly confessed to the crime, packed the body of the victim in a suitcase and dumped it near Belgaum in Karnataka.

A 22-year-old woman from Nagpur was killed in Ambernath in Maharashtra after being gang raped allegedly by two of her friends on Monday, police said.

Rape cases across India are on the rise with even erstwhile safe metros such as Bangalore and Kolkata reporting violent crimes against women. Raj K Raj/HT Photo

The accused later packed the body of the IT engineer in a suitcase and dumped it near Belgaum in neighbouring Karnataka, police revealed on Thursday.

Both the accused, identified as Nikhilesh Patil (24) and Akshay Valode (25), surrendered before Ratnagiri police and confessed to the crime. They were arrested under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code.

Police said the accused, also from Nagpur, and the victim had telephonic conversations and they agreed to meet in Pune on Sunday last.

The two accused, along with another friend Nilesh Khobragade met the victim in Pune and decided to go to Akshay Valode’s house in Ambernath.

Khobragade, however, left the house after sometime as he had some works.

“The two gang raped the victim at the house. When she threatened to lodge a complaint, one of the accused strangulated her and stuffed her body into a suitcase,” said a police officer investigating the case.

On his return Khobragade was told by the accused that they were going to Goa for a trip. They took the suitcase along with them.

On the way, they dumped the suitcase at a secluded placer near Belgaum. This made Khobragade suspicious. When he started asking the two about the woman, they confessed to the crime, said D Godbole, senior police inspector of the ShivajiNagar police station.

The body was retrieved from the spot and was handed over to the family after post mortem. The victim’s father is a policeman posted at Nagpur.

She was working with an IT firm in Mumbai.