IAS officer’s lawyer daughter found killed in Mumbai flat, building watchman held

A 25-year-old lawyer, Pallavi Purkayastha, was found murdered in her 16th floor apartment in Himalayan Heights, in central Mumbai's Wadala area, early on Thursday morning.

Police sources said Saajid Pathan, a watchman of the apartment building who has since been arrested, has confessed to the crime. Pathan, in his mid-20s, has been charged with murder and trespass.

"The victim was found dead in the confines of her apartment with her throat slit, a cut on her right hand below her index finger and an injury on the back of her head," said ACP (Central Region) Pravin Salunkhe.

Police said there was blood in all the rooms of the two-bedroom house. "She ran to all the rooms in the house, and ran outside the apartment also. She rang the bell of the next-door apartment... there are bloodstains there... but nobody answered the door," said a senior officer. Neighbours said there were bloodstains outside her apartment and in the elevator lobby.

Pallavi, the daughter of IAS officer Atanu Purkayastha who is a joint secretary in the union agriculture ministry in New Delhi, was a legal adviser with filmmaker Farhan Akhtar's Excel Entertainment Private Ltd. She lived with her boyfriend, Avik Sengupta, also a lawyer, in the apartment.

According to the police, on Wednesday night, when Pallavi complained to the watchman on duty that there was no electricity, Pathan, who was not on duty at that time, went to her apartment with an electrician. "He told us that he could not control himself and murdered her as she resisted his advances," said an officer.

The police were informed at 5.30 am on Thursday by Sengupta who found Pallavi dead in the hall after returning home after a particularly long day at work.

Pathan and the electrician were nabbed late in the evening.

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