Bengaluru: (DHNS): A software engineer with a leading IT firm in the City was caught by alert residents minutes after he stabbed his friend’s wife to death at her flat in Domlur on Monday afternoon.
Basudev Jena, 37, from Jagatsinghpur village in Odisha, works with IT firm Mindtree here. The police said Jena tried to loot valuables from the house of the victim, 35-year-old Prachi, to clear his debts.
Prachi was the wife of Jena’s friend Debashish Das, who has been working for Wipro since last June. With the presumption that Prachi would have a lot of jewellery at her flat as she had recently married Das, Jena went to see her around 2:45 pm and carried a knife with him in case she resisted his attempt to rob her. He also intended to take around Rs 25,000 from her.
Jena threatened Prachi at knifepoint and tried to snatch her gold chain. Prachi raised an alarm and rushed inside the kitchen. Jena then tried to silence her and hit her on the head. As Prachi continued to scream for help, Jena slit her throat repeatedly and she collapsed, bleeding profusely, the police said.
The landlord rushed to the flat on hearing Prachi’s screams, and was shocked to see Jena carrying a bloodstained knife. Soon, a few other local residents came and caught hold of Jena.
On being alerted, the Ulsoor police arrived on the scene and arrested him.
During interrogation, Jena confessed that he killed Prachi to loot valuables to overcome financial problems. The police have booked Jena under IPC Section 302 (murder).
Jena came to Bengaluru 11 years ago and helped five people from Odisha, including the victim’s husband, get jobs here. Later, he went to New York where he incurred losses up to Rs 1 crore after several failed endeavours.
He returned to Bengaluru in September last year and landed a job at Mindtree with a monthly salary of Rs 1 lakh. He lives with his wife in Rajarajeshwarinagar here while his son studies in New York, the police said.