Bengaluru techie murder: Accused was recent Facebook friend; arrested near Gurgaon

IBM techie Kusuma Rani Singla was found murdered in her apartment in Bengaluru on Tuesday night. The Bengaluru police has stated that the crime was committed by a friend she met on Facebook just three weeks back and the accused has been arrested near Gurgaon.

Kusuma had reportedly been transferred from the Gurgaon office to Bengaluru in August 2015 and was looking to get married again and settle down.

A report in Deccan Herald states that a dispute over money seems to be the main motive behind the murder. The daily reports that Kusuma and the accused, Sukhbir Singh, got to know each other on Facebook. They became friends on December 31, 2015 and exchanged phone numbers on January 9, 2016. On January 17, Singh supposedly told her he was coming to Bengaluru and on Tuesday he flew from Delhi to the city. 

The report adds that once they went to her apartment he asked her for Rs 50,000 as he was not employed. When she refused, he then asked her to pay the airfare back to Delhi. They allegedly got into a fight and then Singh pinned her to the ground and punched her in the face. He then allegedly strangled her with a laptop battery wire.

Singh reportedly stole three debit and credit cards, a chequebook and mobile phone. He also withdrew Rs 11,000 from an ATM in Bengaluru and flew to Mumbai and then Delhi where he reportedly withdrew another Rs 34,000 on Wednesday.