BENGALURU: A woman software engineer was found dead, possibly strangled with a phone charging cable, at an apartment in Kadugodi on Tuesday.
The victim, Kusuma Rani (31), was a resident of Mahaveer Kings Place and an employee of IBM at Whitefield.
A native of Punjab who had also worked in Ghaziabad, she had moved to Bengaluru in September 2014. She lived with Nidhi Sharma, a friend, on the fourth floor of the upmarket apartment.
The incident came to light when Nidhi returned from work at 7.30 pm. She opened the door and found Kusuma lying in a pool of blood. Kusuma was bleeding from her ears, mouth and nose.
Nidhi screamed, drawing the attention of her neighbours. Police soon arrived and moved Kusuma to a nearby hospital. Doctors said she was already dead. Kusuma used to go to office only a couple of times in a week. She had worked from home on Tuesday. Nidhi had left for work as usual at 9 am.
Security guards told the police someone had visited Kusuma around 12.30 pm. Police refused to share the information entered in the visitors’ register, saying disclosure might hamper the investigation.
The visitor had to wait for 30 minutes as Kusuma was not in her flat. Around 1 pm, Kusuma entered the flat with the visitor. The guards said the visitor had left at 3 pm.
Police have obtained CCTV footage from the apartment. “No valuables have gone missing, nor was the house ransacked, and this leads us to suspect the murder was not for gain,” a senior police officer said.
Kusuma had recently signed up at a few matrimonial sites. She used to browse the sites when free, police said. Victim of Online
Married once, she had broken up with her husband. Only her parents can confirm the details, police said. Investigators have sent fingerprints and some strands of hair, suspected to be the visitor’s, for forensic analysis.
Victim of Online Con
Two months ago, Kusuma had complained against a man she had met on a matrimonial website. They had agreed to marry. He then borrowed money from her and blocked her, she had told the Kadugodi police. Kusuma had transferred the money to him online.