Jobless IIT alumnus strangles sister

An unemployed IIT-Kharagpur alumnus strangulated his 23-year-old sister in a Pune flat on Wednesday morning and tried to commit suicide by consuming phenol and slitting his wrist.

Subojit Basu, 29, was taken to the Sassoon general hospital by the police and is stable. Basu and his sister Priyadarshani hailed from Kolkata and shared a flat at Aparajita Residency in Bavdhan.

Soon after murdering his sister, Basu called up an IIT professor and informed him about his act. He also said he was committing suicide. The professor then got in touch with the Pune police control room.

The police are yet to ascertain the motive behind Basu’s action. Mahesh Patil, deputy commissioner of police (zone III), said he was unemployed and searching for a job. “It seems he was disturbed for some reason,” he said.

Senior police inspector of Bavdhan police station Nandkishore Bhosale said the incident took place  around 5am.

“Apparently an altercation preceded the attack,” he said. Bhosale added that the suspect was in a disturbed state of mind after his laptop containing data was stolen. He was associated with some research activity at the National Chemical Laboratory’s Innovation Park. “His mother told us about the laptop,” he said.

Priyadarshini worked with NGO Greenpeace India at Madhav Baug. “She was a member of the fund-raising team of Greenpeace and was working at the Pune office for two years,” said Vivek Sharma, communications director of the organisation, from Bangalore.