Investigations into the murder of 32-year-old Shagufta Khan, wife of bookie Sonu Jalan, have revealed that her assailant Arvind Gupta, 24, had tried to strangulate her 13-year-old daughter also as she saw him in the house.
The girl, who is also the complainant, however, freed herself from Gupta and locked herself in another bed room, police sources said.
According to the police, when the two girls, aged 13 and seven years, returned home from school on November 11, they heard the sound of a door being closed. "On looking further, they saw Gupta, whom they knew as a person coming home to collect money for mobile phones. As as soon as Gupta saw the girls, he ran towards the 13-year-old and tried to strangulate her. The girl somehow managed to free her and locked herself in one of the bedrooms. Her younger sister managed to get to the lower floor and alerted the neighbours" said a crime branch officer, requesting anonymity.
Khan fled from the spot in a rickshaw after the murder and took a train to Howrah. He never contacted his relatives over phone so as not to be traced, the police said.
Shagufta stayed with her two daughters in Rustomjee Riviera Apartment in Malad West. Her husband, Sonu Jalan alias Sonu Malad, had left her a year and a half ago after their relations turned sour.
Gupta used to live with a Bangladeshi girlfriend, a prostitute, and was planning to settle down with her in Bangladesh. Last month, he even accompanied her to Bangladesh, where she stays now.
Since Gupta is a native of Jaunpur in Uttar Pradesh, a police team was dispatched there and another team was sent to Kolkata. Before Gupta could have fled, he was apprehended from Howrah on Thursday.
He has been booked under Sections 302 (murder), 397 (robbery) 450 (house trespass in order to commit offence punishable with imprisonment for life) of the Indian Penal Code.
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