Hotel room boys arrested for Uzbek woman's murder

Bengaluru: Two room boys have been arrested for murdering an Uzbek woman in her room at a star hotel in the heart of the city. 

Zarina DJeparova, who was in Bengaluru on a tourist visa, was found dead in her second-floor room by the staff of Jagadish Hotel around 11 pm on March 13.

The staff had to open the room with a master key because the woman hadn’t come out for a long time and didn’t respond to multiple phone calls. They found Zarina lying dead on the floor, police said. 

Police on Friday announced the arrest of Amrit, 22, and Robert, 26, both from Assam, who worked as room boys at the hotel. They had been on the run since the night of March 13. They were arrested in Kerala. 

Police have taken them into custody and are questioning them. The men had joined the hotel about a month ago. 

A senior police officer said the room boys had entered Zarina’s room between 8.30 pm and 9.30 pm on March 13 on the pretext of fixing a tap and were attracted by the cash and her expensive phone lying in the room. They decided to rob her. 

“They smothered her with a pillow and fled the hotel with cash and the phone,” the officer told DH, adding that nail marks on her face indicate she resisted their attack, but couldn’t escape. The men took Rs 30,000, and 5,000 and 2,000 bills in Uzbekistan’s local currency Som. One Indian rupee is equal to 151 Uzbekistani Soms. 

The assailants switched off her phone. 

Shekhar H Tekkannavar, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Central), told DH that hotel rooms had a card-locking system and the door would get locked if someone just turned the knob from the outside after closing it.

As a result, after the suspects left the hotel, the room was locked from outside despite the key being inside. 

“Our investigators did a very good job, especially the constables. The arrests were made within 30 hours,” he said.