"Pervert" watchman murdered Pallavi: Police

Pallavi (25), daughter of IAS officer Atanu Purkayastha, joint secretary in the Agriculture ministry, was found lying in a pool of blood in her 16th floor apartment at the upscale 'Himalayan Heights' in Wadala by her live-in partner Avik Sengupta last morning.

Sajjad Ahmed Mughal (22), a native of Uri in Baramulla district of Jammu and Kashmir, stole the keys to the flat of Purkayastha, tried to force himself on her, and brutally stabbed her to death when faced with stiff resistance, Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime) Himanshu Roy told reporters here.

"It is the perversion of the highest order, heinous kind of perversion which deserves nothing but death sentence," Roy said when asked about the motive of the murder.

Giving details of the incident, he said, on the fateful night of August 8, Pallavi, who worked as a legal advisor with filmmaker Farhan Akhtar's firm Excel Entertainment Pvt. Ltd, returned to her rented flat at 11 pm.

Finding that there was no electricity, she texted Sengupta, her senior at Indian Law School at Pune, who lived with her. Sengupta advised her to call an electrician, who came and set things right.

After some time, power was gone again. She called the electrician who was accompanied by Mughal. As the attention of the victim and electrician was focused on fixing the problem, Mughal stole the keys to the flat. The problem was fixed and Purkayastha retired to her bedroom after switching off the high-volt appliances, as advised by the electrician to avoid tripping. More