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Mumbai, Oct. 31: The security guard arrested for the August 9 murder of Pallavi Purkayastha, a young lawyer with roots in Bengal, called a friend hours later to say he had killed her for resisting his advances and laughed before hanging up.
The lack of remorse came through in the chargesheet the Mumbai crime branch filed yesterday against Sajjad Ahmed Abdul Aziz Mugal alias Pathan.
According to the chargesheet, which includes Pathan’s confessional statement, the 22-year-old called the friend, a driver at the same building he worked, before his arrest from Mumbai central railway station. The statement details the conspiracy to kill Pallavi, 25, when she was alone at home in her rented Himalayan Heights apartment in central suburban Vadala.
According to the statement, Pathan was on duty on August 8 from 8am to 8pm. Like most days he had stayed back in the lobby after his shift got over.
Pathan said he got a call from Pallavi, who told him the electricity supply to her flat had gone off. He said he went to Pallavi’s apartment at 11.30pm to check the meter. On his way down, he met the electrician along with a co-worker and accompanied them to Pallavi’s 16th-floor flat.
After midnight, the power went off again. The problem was fixed by another guard Pathan accompanied to the flat. “I slipped a house key lying on the kitchen platform into my pocket,” Pathan said.
He also confessed that he shared his attraction towards Pallavi with his colleague, who admonished him. Pathan, however, told him he was joking but returned to the flat around 1am with a knife he had bought to cut fruits. When a neighbour questioned his presence outside Pallavi’s flat so late in the night, Pathan said there was a problem with the power connection.
Pathan then let himself into the flat with the stolen key. When he tried to force himself on Pallavi, she screamed and resisted. Pathan then slit her throat before stabbing her in the neck, abdomen and back.
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