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Even as the police arrested the long-time boyfriend of Vandana Dwivedi, 26, an engineer employed with Infosys in Pune who was shot dead at a hotel in Hinjewadi on Saturday night, a staffer at the hotel said nothing about the couple’s conduct aroused any suspicion. The police, however, said the murder appeared to be pre-planned.
Rishabh Nigam, 30, was nabbed soon after the murder by the Navi Mumbai police along with the gun with which he had allegedly shot her in the head.
“The man checked into the hotel on the night of January 25,” a staffer at the hotel said on Sunday, adding, “He had given his Aadhaar for the photo and identity documentation. The woman arrived sometime between the afternoon and evening of January 26. As a rule, we check the documents of every individual occupant of every room. We took her documents too. On Sunday morning, the police arrived and asked us to open the room. We opened it and found her lying in a pool of blood on the floor.
On whether they had heard the sound of any firearm being discharged, the staffer said, “There was much noise from loudspeakers in the area in the night when the firing is said to have taken place.”
The staffer added that he did not see the accused leaving the premises either. “I did not see him. If any other staff member saw him, I do not know about it. We did not find anything suspicious when they came here.”
A police officer said that they found a helmet, a packet of biscuits, a bar of dark chocolate and some clothes on the table in the room. Vandana was found lying on the floor between the table and the bed, the officer added.
“The fact that he had brought a gun to the room and the way he is seen leaving the room, suggest that this was pre-planned,” another officer said.
Footage retrieved from a CCTV camera on the third floor of the hotel shows a man calmly walking out of room number 306, minutes before 10 pm on January 27 (Saturday) and closing the door behind him, allegedly after the murder.
Officials said the probe suggests that Nigam shot Vandana dead around 9.30 pm, left the room and took a cab to Mumbai. After receiving information from Navi Mumbai police, a team of Hinjewadi police, under the Pimpri-Chinchwad jurisdiction, reached the hotel. Around the same time, Nigam was detained by the Navi Mumbai police along with the gun he allegedly used to shoot her in the head next to the left ear.
“Investigation suggests the deceased and the accused were in a relationship for the last 10 years. Both are Lucknow natives. Vandana moved to Pune some time back and was staying at a paying guest accommodation in the Hinjewadi area while he continued to live in Lucknow,” police officials said.
Investigation indicates Nigam felt that she was avoiding him of late. Recently, he was reportedly attacked by some people a couple of times and Nigam suspected that these were at her behest. He also suspected that Vandana was seeing someone else, a senior officer with the Pimpri- Chinchwad police said.
“Prima facie, the murder seems to be the fallout of the strained relationship between the two. The suspect has been arrested and further probe is on,” said Deputy Commissioner of Police Bapu Bangar.
Nigam was arrested by the Pimpri Chinchwad police on Sunday night and will be produced before a court on Monday. “The gun used by the suspect is not a country-made firearm but a sophisticated one of a specific make. A probe has been launched into how and when he came to possess the gun and whether it is legal,” an officer said.
“We know that Vandana was employed at Infosys but we are yet to get details of her exact work profile. She had completed her engineering from Lucknow. We do not have much information about the suspect’s employment status or the family background of the two,” the officer added.
