Watchman said victim had insulted him earlier, he wanted revenge: cops

Sajjad Ahmed Moghul, accused of murdering 25-year-old Pallavi Purkhayastha, panicked when she resisted and shouted for help, police said.

Sajjad Ahmed Moghul, accused of killing 25-year-old Pallavi Purkhayastha, went to her house with the intention to get intimate with her on knifepoint, but when she started shouting for help, Moghul panicked and killed her. This is what Moghul told the police in his statement.

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“When Pallavi started shouting for help, Moghul realised that it would soon alert the neighbours. Also, she fought bravely and had almost managed to get out of the room. At this point, he decided to kill her,” said a crime branch officer, requesting anonymity.

When questioned if there was any clarity on the motive, the officer said: “In his statement, Moghul said that Pallavi had spoken to him in a harsh manner once. He told us he felt insulted and decided to take revenge for the same.” Moghul also claimed, in his statement, that he did not go to Pallavi’s residence with an intention to murder her.

Joint commissioner of police (crime) Himanshu Roy had earlier said that ‘ perversion of the highest order’ had led to the murder. The police suspect Moghul had been planning to target Pallavi for quite a while. He had observed that her live-in partner Avik Sengupta came late in the night from work and decided to target Pallavi at one such time slot, police said.

On August 8, Moghul tripped power to Pallavi’s 16th-floor-residence twice in order to gain entry into her house and steal the house keys, which he later used to enter the house. Moghul was subsequently arrested by the police from Mumbai Central station on Friday while he was trying to flee.