Police initially put the death of 19-year-old Ramchanphy Hongray down to a kitchen accident, but began to investigate further after the victim’s sister told them the burns weren’t bad enough to kill.

Ramchanphy was allegedly strangled by IIT-Delhi researcher Pushpam Kumar Sinha, 34, after she resisted his attempts to force himself on her. Sinha, whom the police are now calling a sexual “pervert” and a “maniac” on the basis of entries in his personal diary and material in his laptop, is suspected to have strangled Ramchanphy and then held her face down in the gas stove, burning her face, hair, chest and clothes.

“On Saturday afternoon, Sinha repeatedly knocked on her door and ran to hide in his room, but she did not open,” said a senior police officer. “He got his chance when Hongray went to the kitchen,” he said. This was located outside the one-room accommodation, in the corridor the apartment rented by Timila, Ramchanphy’s 23-year-old sister, at A-80 Munirka village. Sinha occupied a room across the corridor.

“As she was chopping vegetables, Sinha assaulted her. The girl resisted and threatened to complain to the police.” In panic, he strangulated her, the officer said. And then, to make the death look like an accident, he pushed her head on the stove.

The body was discovered when Timila called her on phone and failing to get a response, asked her cousin to go and check on her.

The police initially suspected an accident. However, at Safdarjung Hospital, where they took the body, Timila realised that the burns weren’t so bad as to cause death. She told the police her sister might have been murdered, and that she suspected Sinha.

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