AP girl’s ‘killer’ denied bail

LONDON: Nalloori Nagraj Kumar, the Indian who was arrested on Thursday for allegedly killing Samrajyo Jyothirmai Vempala, a University of Wolverhampton student from Vijayawada in Andhra Pradesh, was on Friday denied bail by a Birmingham court. The court gave the police a week to question him.

Like 23-year-old Jyothirmai, Kumar, 24, is also from Andhra Pradesh and was found injured in the same house in Handsworth, Birmingham, where Jyothirmai’s body was found on Tuesday. He denied the murder charge.

Police believe Jyothirmai was not the target of an unknown assailant who came to rob the house she shared with three other Andhra students, but fell prey to a “domestic situation”. An autopsy has established she died of head injuries.

According to unconfirmed reports, Jyothirmai’s neighbours told police they heard two people fighting in the house on Tuesday. “I was working in my garage when one of the four people living next door came home. The man went inside the house and found two persons lying unconscious. He came out shouting. One person had a cut in the neck, the other was lying face down,” said a neighbour.

“Earlier in the day around noon, my niece heard somebody running around the house. There was screaming, shouting and yelling,” he said.

The university is sending representatives to visit the girl’s parents in Vijayawada. Its marketing and communications director Ashar Ehsan said, “Feedback from fellow students and tutors indicates she was a very bright and enthusiastic student.”