Security guard found guilty in Pallavi Purkayastha murder case

A Mumbai court has found former watchman Sajjad Ahmed Pathan guilty of murdering 25-year-old lawyer Pallavi Purkayastha in her apartment in Wadala on August 9, 2012.

According to the police, Purkayastha was murdered by Pathan in a premeditated 'act of perversion'.

The opportune moment arrived when Sajjad realised that Purkayastha's live-in partner had been delayed at work.

Pathan had earlier manipulated the electricity supply to Purkayastha's apartment on two occasions, forcing her to make emergency calls to an electrician to rectify the problem.

Pathan had accompanied the electrician to the apartment on both occasions. On the second visit, which had occurred at around 2 a.m., he managed to steal the apartment's keys, which had been placed on a shelf in the hall.

The watchman had then let himself into the apartment using the key at around 3 a.m. and gone in to the bedroom where she was sleeping.

Purkayastha tried to fend off Pathan's advances, but the latter was armed with a knife, and according to Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime) Himanshu Roy "he grievously harmed her in a manner from which she could not recover".

He was apprehended before he could escape to his home state of Jammu and Kashmir.

Pallavi's fiance, Avik Sengupta, who had been living with her, found her body lying in a pool of blood.

Sengupta was a crucial witness and had testified in the case. However, he died of an illness on November 14 last year.