Pune BPO murder: Accused was carrying kitchen knife in his laptop bag for three days, says Pune police chief

The incident had taken place around 6.15 pm on January 7 in the parking lot of a multinational BPO, WNS Global Services, located in Yerawada. The victim, Shubhada Shankar Kodare (28), who had sustained an injury on her hand, succumbed due to excessive bleeding. The accused, Krishna Satyanarayan Kanoja (30), a resident of Shivajinagar, was arrested. Investigation has revealed that the two were having a dispute over money Kodare had borrowed from Kanoja, which he was asking her to return.

Speaking about the security scenario at private firms, Kumar said, “I want to refer to the incident in one of the companies on January 7. A young girl was assaulted and she succumbed to her injuries. The incident is very sensitive and we have been taking it with utmost seriousness to ensure that the culprit is severely punished. From the police’s point of view, we often say that some incidents are preventable and some others are not preventable, theoretically. The girl had a dispute with a coworker, which ended in a physical assault on her leading to her death. We are very sorry for the family.”

“It has come to notice that the accused was carrying a kitchen knife in his laptop bag for three days before the incident actually took place. So the point arises that we have to ensure that the access control mechanism… companies do not just check whether the person is authorised to enter or not. But there will also have to be a mechanism to check whether those authorised to enter are carrying anything unwanted or unauthorised in the bag or on the person. So an effective use of DFMDs and HHMDs (Door Frame Metal Detectors and Hand Held Metal Detectors) or sample checks of bags would go a long way in ensuring that unwanted things do not reach the company and office premises and incidents like these can be prevented,” he said.

“In light of the event, though we were not able to prevent that incident due to the reason I enumerated, we have to ensure that such incidents do not happen again at any cost. When I say we, I mean we as the police and you as citizens,” Kumar said.

The investigation found that Kodare had borrowed money from Kanoja from time to time over the last two years. He had lent her close to Rs 4.5 lakh in total. She had borrowed the money citing reasons like treatment of her father and for her own treatment because she had diabetes. In June last year, Kanoja had an eye surgery for which he required money. He was asking for the money he lent to Kodare but she kept promising that she would repay it soon. According to the probe, Kanoja wanted to threaten Kodare to get his money back with the kitchen knife. Moments after Kanoja attacked her, she called her father telling what had happened. The accused too spoke to her father and reiterated his demand for repayment of the money he had lent her, the probe has revealed. Kodare succumbed to her injuries later.

Meanwhile, a fact finding committee has been formed by the National Commission for Women (NCW) to investigate the matter. The committee recently visited the location of the crime, met the family members and colleagues of the victim and also met senior functionaries, including the police commissioner, PMC commissioner and district collector.