IBM Techie Brutally Murdered By Facebook Friend

Bengaluru: A man was arrested on Thursday for killing his Facebook friend in her apartment complex in Kadugodi on Tuesday night.

The accused, Sukhbir Singh (30) who hails from Haryana had worked with Yahoo and Accenture between 2011 and 2013 after which he was unemployed.

Sukhbir met Kusum on Facebook in December 2015 and later exchanged phone numbers and were in contact ever since.

“Sukhbir had come down to the city by flight on January 19, telling Kusum that he had some work in Bengaluru and he shall meet her, for the first time, at her flat after the work is done. He reached Kusum’s flat in Mahaveer Kings’ Place around 12:30 pm, and that was when Kusum insisted that he make an entry in the security register. Interestingly, Sukhbir who wrote his name correctly did not write his correct contact number,” said Dr M B Boralingaiah, DCP South East.

On their first meet, Sukhbir asked for Rs. 50,000 which Kusum denied. He later pleaded her to give him flight expenses to go back to Delhi as he didn’t have any money with him.

When Kusum denied, Sukhbir was frustrated and strangled Kusum with a laptop charger wire, stabbed her head with a pen and killed her. He had left his blood soaked jeans, wore one of Kusum’s jeans and fled the spot with her three debit and credit cards, check book, laptop and on the way drew Rs. 45,000 in two occasions after which he took a flight to Mumbai and then to Delhi on Tuesday.

Later the police arrested Sukhbir basing on the call records and social media interaction.

Kusum Rani Singla who hails from Punjab had come to the city six months ago and was working as a software engineer with IBM in Whitefield.

The incident came to light when Kusum’s flat-mate Nidhi Sharma returned from her work around 8 pm. She found the flat door open and Kusum was lying on the floor motionless with blood spilled around.

“It looked like the victim was strangulated using a wire. There were few injuries inflicted to her neck with a sharp object with blood oozing out from her nose, mouth and neck. Our men have recovered the mobile charger wire from the crime spot, but not the sharp object,” said a senior investigating officer.

Nidhi later informed the police who rushed to the spot and started investigating. They collected blood samples, hair stands and CCTV camera footage.

The body was shifted to Vydehi Hospital for post-mortem and her family members were informed.

“When the visitor did not do his entry at the security gate and was waiting for her down, it was Kusum who had come down from her flat speaking over a phone, who took him to the security and made him undergo the entry formality,” said a senior police officer, who had made inquiries with the victim’s neighbours on Tuesday night.

In the past, Kusum had filed a cheating case against a man she met on Shaadi.com on the pretext of marrying her. He later started asking her for money.

“Once she transferred the money online to him, he blocked all communications with her, including e-mails, phone, and Whatsapp accounts, which prompted Kusum to lodge a complaint with the Kadugodi police,” a senior police officer said.