Police have arrested a Nigerian national for fatally stabbing a compatriot on the weekend in northeastern Bengaluru.
Solomon Ekenay (26) died from multiple stab wounds allegedly inflicted by Obiora Victor Ljeawe, 35, at 6 pm on October 9.
Ljeawe and Ekenay once lived on the same floor of a residential building in Kothanur police station limits.
Police said Ljeawe, who hailed from Nigerian’s Ossomala town, stayed in Nepal before illegally entering India by road in 2018. He travelled to Mumbai by train where a friend in Santacruz helped him get two fake entry stamps on his passport, according to police.
In 2019, Ljeawe moved to Bengaluru, ostensibly to carry out his apparel business. Before coming to the city, Ljeawe dated and reportedly married a Meghalayan nurse named Puyndaplin Lapang. The couple has a five-year-old child.
In Bengaluru, Ljeawe came in contact with Ekenay. They hit it off right away and started living as next-door neighbours in Cauvery Layout, Kothanur.
There was trouble when Ljeawe started suspecting that Puyndaplin and Ekenay were having an affair. The couple later moved to a third-floor house in Munikempanna Layout in Dasarahalli.
At around 6 pm on October 9, Ljeawe and Puyndaplin had an argument after the Nigerian said they were relocating to Mumbai. He was in a great hurry as he packed up and asked Puyndaplin to get ready. She didn’t agree and called up Ekenay for help, sending him the house location on Google Maps.
But Ekenay’s arrival only worsened the situation. Ljeawe picked a fight with him. In a fit of rage, he grabbed a knife and attacked him. Ekenay, who was shorter and leaner than Ljeawe, ran for his life. Ljeawe went after him and kept attacking him with the knife.
Ekenay ran out of the building but was chased down by Ljeawe, who pinned him down near a high-tension wire and ruthlessly stabbed him in the chest, the neck and the back. Ekenay died.
Ljeawe later went to the Amruthahalli police station for some unknown reason but didn’t stay there long. However, as police launched a murder investigation, they soon tracked him down.
A police officer who is part of the investigation said Ljeawe claimed to have come to Bengaluru for carrying out apparel business but he had nothing to show that he was actually
doing it.
“He neither ran a store nor is giving us his bank details to show his business transactions. We don’t really know what he was up to,” the officer said.
Police have secured his custody for four days.