Behind Bengaluru doctor murder: fake Insta profile, nude photos, double identity
Architect Pratibha allegedly finds that her lover, Dr N Vikas Rajan, has been masquerading online as a woman and even sharing her nude photos with them to “prove” his identity.
4 min read
The police identified the accused as Prathibha, a resident of New Mico Layout, and her friends Gautham, 27, and Sushil, 25. (Express)An architect meets a doctor on a dating website during the pandemic. Soon, they fall in love and decide to get married. The architect lets the doctor move in with her until they tie the knot. It is at this juncture that this Bengaluru story takes a chilling turn.
The architect, Pratibha (27), allegedly finds that her lover, Dr N Vikas Rajan (27), has been masquerading online as a woman and “sexting” other men — even sharing her nude photos with them to “prove” his identity. She allegedly confides in her friends about this and they decide to “make him face the consequences”. In the assault that follows, the doctor dies.
These are the key details of a murder case that has grabbed headlines in the tech city, according to police officers investigating the case and the FIR lodged on a complaint from Rajan’s elder brother Vijay Rajan.
On Monday, the Bengaluru City police arrested Prathibha and her friends Gautham (27) and Sushil (25). Another accused in the case, Surya, is absconding, the police said.
“We still do not know the intention of the accused — whether they wanted to assault him (Vikas Rajan) or planned to kill him. Also, Prathibha tried to mislead the probe stating that she was not in their house when the incident took place but was outside speaking over phone with a friend. But our investigations do not support this claim. We have deleted the photos that Vikas had shared on the fake Instagram and Facebook profiles, and a probe is underway,” a police officer told The Indian Express.
According to the police, Rajan had completed his MBBS course from Ukraine and was working at a private hospital in Chennai before shifting to Bengaluru four months ago. “He was preparing for the MD entrance examination and had quit his job. Prathibha, whose salary was about Rs 60,000, provided him shelter and took care of his expenses, including his gym fees,” police sources said.
On September 8, the police said, Prathibha discovered that Rajan was chatting on Instagram with another man. “He had opened an Instagram account with the name ‘Ramya’ and started conversing with men. The Instagram account had 772 followers,” police sources said.
According to the police, Rajan had also sent Pratibha’s nude photos to a man with whom he was “sexting” to “prove” that he was a woman. “He had shared photos of Prathibha’s mother, too, and had exchanged messages on them,” sources said.
“After Prathibha discovered the conversations, she was furious and questioned Vikas over it. On September 9, she met Sushil who is also an architect and shared her ordeal. Sushil, who consoled her, said ‘I will make sure that he faces the consequences’,” the sources said.
According to the police FIR, Prathibha, Surya and Gowtham allegedly went to Sushil’s house on September 10 and asked Rajan to come over. “Around 12 midnight, the verbal altercation turned ugly where they got into a physical fight. The trio attacked Vikas with a floor mop and water bottles. Vikas sustained serious injuries and was shifted to a private hospital. The accused gave false information to the hospital stating that Vikas had a fight with her friends over trivial issues and was injured. However, Vikas succumbed to the injuries,” the FIR stated while detailing the allegations against the accused.
According to the FIR, Prathibha called Vikas’ brother Vijay and asked him to visit the hospital. It was later that Vijay filed a complaint with the local police in Begur.
According to the police, Prathibha hails from Chennai and Rajan from Thoothukudi – both in Tamil Nadu. They connected on a dating application one-and-a-half years ago and met physically several times, the police said. In February this year, the couple informed their parents about their relationship. “The families decided to get them married after Vikas completed his MD entrance examination,” the police said.
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