Bangalore Dell employee murder case solved; husband's friend arrested

The Bangalore police on Saturday announced that the murderer of Dell employee Payal Sureka was an estranged family friend, James Kumar Roy.

A senior technical assistant at Dell, Payal was found dead with her throat slit in her flat at JP Nagar in Bangalore. Her husband, Anant Narayan Mishra, was in Cuttack on that day.

Police commissioner Shankar M Bidari claimed that James, 28, a native of Haradapalli village in Jariya Kendrapara district, Orissa, murdered Payal to get back at Mishra, who had ended James’s services at a gymnasium that he owned in Orissa.

“James used to work with Mishra, who had terminated his services,” Biradri.

The Bangalore police received a call about the murder on December 17 evening. The police found Payal’s dead body; she had been tied with a rope and had stab injuries on her neck, chest, and stomach.

The police began their investigation by initially questioning her husband. A police team was even despatched to Cuttack. But finding no motive, the police then began looking for possible enemies of the couple, and soon turned their attention to James, who had moved to Hyderabad.

According to Bidari, James had trained as a gym instructor at the gym owned by Mishra. “After completion of his training, James joined the gymnasium run by the Mishra family, called “Cuts and Curve”, at Cuttack in Orissa,” said Bidari.

Initially, James and Mishra were close. But while working at the gym, James became involved in dishonest dealings. “He used to collect money from the customers but did not credit the same into the account. The Mishras then terminated his service and gave him a compensation of Rs75,000. Also, Payal used to warn her husband and tell him not to have any truck with James” said Bidari.

James thus nurtured a grudge against Payal, who hailed from Assam, and decided to kill her. He took a bus from Hyderabad to Bangalore, reaching on December 17 morning. Payal allowed James into the house and offered him a cup of tea. When she went to the bedroom, James followed her and slit her throat; then he stabbed her multiple times on her chest and stomach.

James the stole her laptop and mobile to make it look like a crime for gain. He got rid of his clothes and the knife used to kill Payal, and fled to Hyderabad and from there to Vijaywada, where he was arrested on December 22.

After the arrest, the police recovered the knife, his clothes, and Payal’s laptop in a broken condition. Bidari said that James had committed the crime alone and had no accomplices.