BENGALURU: Close to nine years after the murder of software engineer Payal Surekha, the Special Court for CBI Cases in Bengaluru has convicted James Kumar Roy to undergo life imprisonment, on Wednesday.
Payal (29), who worked at a multi-national company, was murdered in her flat in JP Nagar 7th phase on the morning of December 17, 2010. The JP Nagar police, who had registered a case, had arrested James Kumar Roy, a business partner of her husband. Investigations had revealed that Payal and her husband were running a gym in partnership with Roy. Due to alleged misappropriation of funds, the couple had cut business ties with Roy, and Payal had insulted and ill-treated Roy. In an act of revenge, he had murdered Payal at her flat by slitting her throat and stabbing her multiple times, while her husband had gone to Odisha.
The Supreme Court had transferred the case to the CBI, which investigated the case and filed the chargesheet.
As part of the probe, the CBI had sent the hair strands collected from the crime scene for DNA test and it had matched with that of the accused. Roy was sentenced to undergo imprisonment for life and pay a fine of Rs 1 lakh.