Student held for Cottonpet murder

The City police on Monday claimed to have cracked the murder of a 24-year-old woman at a lodge in Cottonpet on February 6, by arresting an engineering student in Tamil Nadu.

Satyaprakash, 22, a native of Bihar, was arrested at Chidambaram in the neighbouring state by the Cottonpet police, based on CCTV footage recorded at the UG Regal Lodge he had checked into on February 3.

The victim Roopali Mishra’s parents, who had come down from Kanpur in Uttar Pradesh to collect her body, also gave vital clues about a man who had borrowed money from their daughter.

Based on the mobile phone records, the police traced Satyaprakash to Chidambaram and a special team rushed there and arrested him Sunday evening.
Police said Satyaprakash was a third year engineering student at the Annamalai College of Engineering in Chidambaram.

Police said Roopali, who had completed her MBA, was introduced to Satyaprakash by a common friend.

Satyaprakash had promised to get Roopali, who was working in a high-end beauty parlour after she lost her job in Axis Bank, a good job at an MNC and had taken Rs two lakh from her a few months ago. However, he did not get her any job and also did not return the money.

Roopali allegedly had a tiff with Satyaprakash over the issue and the latter had visited Bangalore on earlier occasions to pacify her. However, a miffed Roopali had allegedly threatened to file a police complaint against Satyaprakash.

Sources said Satyaprakash then hatched a plot to get rid of her and came to the City on February 3. He checked into UG Regal Lodge under the pseudo name Santosh Kumar Yadav and asked Roopali to come to the lodge and collect her money. But he murdered her and locked up the room before fleeing.

Police said he later checked into Durgamba Lodge on Y Ramachandra Road the same day, abandoned the murder weapons there and fled the City. Satyaprakash returned to Chidambaram the same night and even attended classes the next day.

A senior police officer handling the case told Deccan Herald that the investigation was still in the initial stages and many issues were yet to be ascertained.
He said the two did not have an affair as suspected.