GUWAHATI, Feb 6: In a tragic end to a love triangle, a couple hailing from Kolkata was arrested on the charge of murdering a Pune businessman in a luxury hotel in Guwahati, police said on Tuesday.
Addressing a press conference here, Guwahati police commissioner Diganta Barah said the incident took place on Monday afternoon at the hotel, where the three persons had stayed.
“The victim, identified as 44-year-old Sandeep Suresh Kamble from Pune, came in contact with the woman during one of his business trips to Kolkata in September 2023,” he added.
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The 25-year-old woman was a store manager at a restaurant at the Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose International Airport in Kolkata and as their relationship became intimate, they spent time together at hotels in at least two cities earlier, Barah said.
“The victim had clicked photographs of their intimate moments during such stays. He also used to send expensive gifts to the accused. The deceased, who is already married, wanted to marry her too and kept on forcing her to break off her relationship with her boyfriend,” he added.
Gradually their relationship fell apart and the girl started avoiding the victim, who became more possessive and started blackmailing her by showing photographs of their intimate moments, the police commissioner said.
“The Pune man also started contacting her family members as well as the boyfriend, who were residents of Kolkata, in his bid to force her to marry him. He also shared the intimate photographs with the boyfriend,” he added.
In order to stop the blackmailing, she along with her boyfriend made a plan to meet the businessman at a hotel and somehow take away his mobile phone in which those photos are stored.
“They planned to sedate him and accordingly she brought sleeping pills and bhang-infused laddoos to feed him,” the police officer said.
The accused also brought ropes to tie the man if needed.
Accordingly, all three persons came to Guwahati separately on Monday. The woman met the Pune man at the Lokpriya Gopinath Bordoloi International Airport in Guwahati and then left for Radisson Blu hotel, where they checked in, Barah said.
Her 23-year-old boyfriend also checked in at another room of the same hotel.
“At around 2 pm, the boyfriend entered their room and a fight broke out between the two men. The Pune man was injured and died later. Finding the victim unconscious profusely bleeding from the nose, they decided to leave the hotel,” Barah added.
Initially, the couple went to Kamakhya Railway Station to catch a train heading towards Kolkata, but they changed the plan and decided to catch their pre-booked flight at 9:15 pm from Guwahati, he said.
“When they were going towards the airport, they were arrested,” he added.
The boyfriend had made a call to the hotel reception, saying that the guest of Room No 922, where the businessman had checked in, might be sick. This call led to their arrest.
The hotel employees rushed to the room and, after finding the guest lying dead in a pool of blood, called the police.
The police found the two accused in CCTV footage of the hotel. Their details were also received from the property.
The details along with photos of these two suspects were immediately circulated among the local police personnel for interception, leading to their arrest.
During interrogation, they confessed to the crime. (PTI)
