The society’s housekeeping staffer, who was arrested for allegedly killing the 23-year-old air hostess by slitting her throat inside her flat in Mumbai’s Marol area, had reportedly changed his clothes after the murder, washed bloodstains off his uniform before leaving the building two hours after the crime.
The deceased, identified as Rupal Ogrey, hailed from Chhattisgarh and came to Mumbai in April for training with Air India. Police arrested 40-year-old Vikram Athwal, Ogrey’s residential society’s garbage collection staffer, less than 12 hours after the body was discovered on Sunday night in her flat at NG Complex on Krishanlal Marwah Marg in Marol.
Though Ogrey’s dead body was discovered in a semi-naked state, police has not confirmed the sexual assault motive. However, forensic experts have preserved her visceral samples for further analysis, according to a report by Times of India.
Fresh Wounds on Accused’s Body
The police team investigating the murder of the flight attendant, reportedly, zeroed down on Athwal as accused based on the fresh injury marks on his neck and hands and the CCTV footage that showed him leaving the society two hours after the crime, not in his uniform, but another set of clothes.
“Athwal said he entered the flat to clean it. He left it around noon but did not step out of the building for two hours. After committing the crime, he washed the bloodstains off his uniform, changed his clothes, left the building around 1:30 p.m., and went directly to his Tunga village home in Powai. He reported to work on Monday when he was nabbed,” the TOI report quoted a Powai police officer as saying.
After the crime was reported, police scanned through the building’s CCTV footage and the guest log book and scanned through all the people who visited the society. The CCTV footage revealed that on Sunday, Athwal reported to work in his uniform but left the building in another set of clothes, according to the TOI report.
“His involvement was confirmed after we found fresh injury marks on his neck and hands. He confessed to leaving the building after changing his clothes,” said a police officer.
The accused does not have a criminal history and is a married man with two children. His wife also works in the same building as domestic help.
Police is yet to zero down on the motive of the crime.
The case
After Ogrey did not pick up calls from her family, they contacted their local friends in Mumbai and asked them to check on her. When the family’s friends went there, they found the flat was locked from inside and no one responded to the doorbell.
Later, they contacted the police and with their help opened the flat using a duplicate key. Inside, the woman was found lying with her throat slit. She was immediately rushed to Rajawadi Hospital where she was declared dead before admission.
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