In the city of strangers and overflowing trains, Kaushambi Layek, a 24-year-old from Dumka, a small town in Jharkhand, found love on the Internet. Or so she thought.

On Sunday night, she was shot in an Andheri hotel room, possibly in her sleep. She was found dead on Monday afternoon in room number 202 of Sun-N-Shine. Police said she had two bullet wounds, one in the temple and another in the neck. They found two empty glasses, one of them with bloodstains, a bottle of 8 PM whisky and a pistol in the room.

Police said the killer probably used a pillow — they found one with two bullet holes — to muffle the gunshots, and turned up the volume of the TV.

Kaushambi had checked into the hotel on May 12 with a man called Manish Thakur and they had signed in as Mr and Mrs Thakur.

Police say Layek, an assistant systems engineer with Tata Consultancy Services, was murdered by Thakur, an engineer with the Navy. He was detained last night in Goa. They suspect she was murdered because Thakur did not want his wife to know about his relationship with Kaushambi.

“Thakur was married but he still had a relationship with Kaushambi. He had told her family members that he would get a divorce and marry Kaushambi. We suspect that Thakur might not have told his wife about his relationship with Kaushambi which could have created tension between them,” J J Naiknavare, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Zone X), said. “We do not say this could be the motive behind the murder as we are still to question Thakur.”

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