Udupi air hostess, family murder: Cabin crew’s obsession towards colleague led to murders, say police

Udupi Superintendent of Police Dr K Arun stated that investigations proved that the crime “was a result of possessiveness and jealousy”.

“The victim and the accused were working together for eight months. They were together on eight to 10 occasions as crew on international flights. They developed a friendship during this time. The accused has helped the victim on a few occasions. He has helped her rent a house in Mangaluru and he had given his two-wheeler for her local travel. All these things led to a close friendship,” the SP said.

The officer said that about a month ago the victim stopped communicating with Chougule. “This triggered a reaction in the accused and he decided to kill her. He made preparations to carry out the pre-determined murder,” he said.

The decision why she started staying away from him is personal and not relevant, he said.

The psychiatric condition of the accused has to be assessed by doctors before arriving at any conclusion on the mental condition of the airline employee who was in service for 15 years, SP Arun said.

On the day of the murder, Chougule left his home in Mangaluru in his car and parked the car at a location before a toll gate on the route to Udupi to prevent his pictures from being captured by CCTV cameras at the toll gates. He later travelled by different modes – bus, bike and auto – to reach the house of the victim, the police said.

Investigators said that Chougule allegedly carried with him a knife taken from his kitchen and used online tools like image locations to locate Aynaz’s house. He first attacked his colleague and then the others when they tried to intervene, they said.

“After the crime, he returned to his car. He burnt some of the clothes he had been wearing. He went home and then went to a hospital for treatment for a wound on his hand. He put the knife used for the murder back in his kitchen,” the police said, adding that he then took his family to his wife’s uncle’s house.

His wife and her family were reportedly unaware of the crime until the police arrested Chougule, the police said.Chougule who was earlier posted in Pune police department quit his job while in training after he was recruited by the airline as a cabin crew member in 2008.

Colleagues of the air hostess were unaware of the level of the obsession the accused had with the victim, the police said.

“Initially we did not know the primary target of the attacker. After individual teams eliminated the possible primary targets we were able to narrow down the primary target,” the Udupi SP said.

In a confession statement, Chougule has reportedly stated that he intended to attack his colleague Aynaz alone and that he murdered the others as they tried to stop him.