Charge sheet filed in lawyer murder case

The Mumbai Crime Branch on Tuesday filed a charge sheet in the murder case of Pallavi Athnu Purkayastha, the daughter of an IAS officer.

The 25-year-old lawyer, daughter of civil servant Athnu Purkayastha, was found brutally murdered at her Mumbai apartment on August 9.

Sajjid Ahmed Abdul, the security guard of the building where Ms. Purkayastha lived, has been named as the accused in the 434-page charge sheet.

Resisted advances

According to the police’s case, Sajjid murdered Ms. Purkayastha when she resisted his advances. However, Section 354 (assault or criminal force to a woman with an intention to outrage her modesty), under which Sajjid was booked, along with the two more sections, isn’t part of the charge-sheet.

He has been charge-sheeted under Section 302, (murder) and 449 (house trespass to commit offence punishable with death).

“Section 449 could also include rape, molestation. It is a more serious offence. Murder is the basic offence, which we will prove,” Himanshu Roy, Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime), told The Hindu on the phone.

The offence of trying to outrage the modesty of a woman wasn’t included, since the police didn’t have direct eye-witness evidence. “But we have described the motive for the murder,” Mr. Roy said.

The police recovered a blood-stained uniform and the murder weapon — a knife — from Sajjid. They also acquired call records related to Ms. Purkayastha, the accused, and some of the witnesses, from five mobile companies.

There are 47 witnesses in the case. Sajjid was arrested the day after the murder, when he was trying to escape.

Ms. Purkayastha was a lawyer with Excel Entertainment Private Limited. On the day of the incident, Sajjid, who had stolen the keys to the apartment, entered the victim’s bedroom at night.

The police said there was a scuffle when he tried to assault her. He then brutally murdered her with a knife that he was carrying.

Chemical analysis and DNA reports of blood and hair samples match.