A 39-year-old man allegedly murdered a 28-year-old sex worker in Kamathipura and then surrendered at the Nagpada police station on Tuesday night. “The accused, a native of Chennai, launched the unprovoked attack in front of a crowd on a busy street and calmly walked to the Nagpada police station with none of the onlookers giving him a chase,” the police said. According to the police, S Kumaran, a former loan recovery agent in Chennai, visited Kamathipura on Tuesday night and walked past the victim with a warning. The woman, police added was seated on a metal fence, beside St Anthony’s Girls High School in Kamathipura, when Kumaran walked past at 9.15 pm on Tuesday. Witnesses to the murder added that the metal fence was the spot where the woman solicited customers each day. “Kumaran came from the direction of the school, rounded the corner and spotted the woman. While walking past, he told her to get out of his sight and that she should not be around when he returned,” said a local, who identified himself as Rahman (25). He added that Kumaran then walked into the Behram Country Liquor Bar, a few metres down the road. “He came back at 9.30 pm in an inebriated state. He walked towards the woman and stopped behind the metal fence. He grabbed the sex worker by her hair and yanked her head backwards. He then drew out a knife and slashed her throat thrice,” Rahman said. According to Rahman, several other sex workers, two vendors and several men drinking tea watched on in horror, but no one stepped forward to intervene. “The woman was bleeding heavily, while Kumaran crossed the road and started to walk towards Nagpada police station. No one followed him because everyone was too scared. But it wasn’t required, because a few minutes later, the entire police station converged on the spot,” he said. Shivaji Kadam, senior inspector at Nagpada police station, said Kumaran and the woman had known each other for the past four years. “Kumaran, who lived in Chennai, has been unemployed for a long time. He often visited Mumbai and lived with the victim. He did not approve of the victim soliciting her services,” he said. The couple, Kadam added, had argued about it every time Kumaran came to Mumbai, with the woman insisting that she needed to earn a living. “Primarily, this seems to be the motive behind the murder. But Kumaran is not a hardened criminal and surrendered after realising what he had done. We have been granted his custody till April 4,” Kadam said. mumbai.newsline@expressindia.com
