Software engineer Nayana Pujari (28), who was murdered on October 7 near Pune, was also raped by the cab driver and security guard appointed by her company, police investigations revealed after three people were arrested. Yogesh Joshi reports.
Software engineer Nayana Pujari (28), who was murdered on October 7 near Pune, was also raped by the cab driver and security guard appointed by her company, police investigations revealed after three people were arrested on Friday.
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The incident has once again brought to fore lack of security for working women from Pune.
Pujari, a resident of Katraj and an employee of software firm Synechron was found murdered near Rajgurunagar, some 60 km from Pune.
Deputy Commissioner of Police Anant Shinde said, “Before killing Pujari, the accused withdrew Rs 61,000 from three different ATM centres using Pujari’s ICICI bank debit card.”
After eight days of investigation, the police arrested three people — Yogesh Raut, a cab driver, Raju Chaoudhari, a security guard working for Synechron and another accomplice Mahesh Thakur. Trace for fourth accused Vishwas Kadam is on, said the police.
“The accused have confessed to raping the victim and killing her to destroy evidence,” said Assistant Police Commissioner Sangramsinh Nishandar.
The police said, on October 7, Pujari informed her husband Abhijit at 8 pm that she had missed that company pick-up and she would be reaching home late. But when Pujari did not return, her family members lodged a compliant. On October 8, Khed police found her body from Zarewadi forest near Rajguru nagar.
The city has in the past witnessed increasing number of crimes against women working in this field. In August software firm employee Shraddha Chhajed was murdered by her colleague while on November 3, 2007, Jyotikumari Choudhary (22), an employee of a Wipro call centre, was raped and murdered by the firm’s driver and his friend.