Police say that Kaushambi did not know that Thakur was married when they first met.

The murder, police say, was well-planned. “It does not seem to have been committed on the spur of the moment, the accused had two weapons with him,” said Pradeep Sonawane, senior police inspector at Andheri. The police are still looking for Kaushambi’s mobile phone which they suspect Thakur might have taken away. The telephone records they accessed show they were in constant touch with each other through calls and text messages.

A Navy spokesperson said that Thakur was based in Kochi till February 10 but was sent for technical training to Goa. Asked about the weapon Thakur was carrying, he said: “The Navy arms room would have weapons like .9mm and .38 mm pistols but it is very difficult for anyone to smuggle them out.”

Navy authorities have asked the police to show the evidence they have against Thakur. The police expect to bring Thakur to Mumbai tomorrow.

Kaushambi’s friends and colleagues in Mumbai say they haven’t met Thakur, a 28-year-old aircraft maintenance engineer. But some of them had encounters with him in cyberspace. Rohit Monga, who works with TCS, said: “Thakur had once scrapped on my Orkut account saying that he is Kaushambi’s friend. I would not like to say anything more as I am in a state of shock.”

But her relatives refuse to believe she was in love with Thakur. Kaushik Layek, Kaushambi’s cousin and an assistant director in the Mumbai film industry, said: “She was not the kind who would go out with a person like Thakur. This person (Thakur) is a psycho and he must have been stalking her.”

... contd.