Pushpam Sinha, the IIT-Delhi research scholar arrested for allegedly killing a 19-year-old girl in Munirka here over the weekend, was remanded to one-day police custody by a court on Monday.
During a search of his rented accommodation, the police seized a diary in which he had purportedly expressed his feeling of loneliness and frustration at still being single and his inability to strike friendship with girls. He had also bought some gifts for his future spouse.
The graffiti on the walls of Pushpam’s room suggested that he suffered from obsessive compulsive disorder, the police said.
Pushpam, whose father retired from Hindustan Aeronautical Limited and mother is a doctor, did his graduation in engineering from Allahabad University and Masters from the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. He then got enrolled with IIT-Delhi as a research scholar in June last year.
During police interrogation, Pushpam purportedly disclosed that he got attracted to Ramchanphi Hongray, a resident of Ukhrul in Manipur. She had been staying with her sister Timila for the past one month on the second floor of the same building.
According to the police, Puspham was upset at not getting a positive response from the girl and went to her house at 4-30 p.m. on Saturday when she was alone. When she resisted his advances, Pushpam allegedly tried to overpower her in the kitchen. He allegedly strangled her when she raised an alarm. To make it appear that she had died in an accidental fire, he allegedly lit the gas stove and burnt her face and chest and fled the spot.
However, post-mortem revealed that she was strangled and then burnt.