Mumbai:
She had been stabbed with a knife and was bleeding profusely. But Pallavi Purkayastha managed to escape the attacker who was trying to rape her in her flat in Central Mumbai in the middle of the night. She rushed outside her apartment on the 16th floor - and ran down the corridor, her blood staining the walls and the floor. There are four other flats on the same storey. The desperate lawyer rang at least two doorbells, investigators have concluded. Nobody answered. Neighbours have allegedly told the police that in their bedrooms, with the doors shut, they heard nothing.
By now, her pursuer had caught up with her. He managed to drag her back into the three-bedroom flat she rented for Rs. 35,000 a month. A few hours later, her boyfriend, who lived with her, returned home and found the 25-year-old dead, her throat slit. "It was an act of perversion," said Himanshu Roy, the city's police commissioner, of the murder that he said was carefully pre-planned.
Ms Purkayastha had rented the apartment 11 months ago. She was doing well, working with director Farhan Akhtar's production company as a legal advisor, and Himalayan Heights seemed a good place to call home. The building came with extensive security - there are CCTV cameras on all floors and at least 10-12 security men guard the complex round the clock. However, on the night that Ms Purkayastha was killed, the security cameras were not working.
The police say it was a security guard named Sajjad Ahmad Moghul who had been stalking her for two weeks. On Wednesday night, he knew her boyfriend, Avik Sengupta, was out. He disconnected the power supply to her apartment, and waited for her call for assistance. At 1 am, he accompanied an electrician to her flat. The problem was solved and the men left. The police claim that Mr Moghul has confessed that 30 minutes later, he once again disconnected her power, and was summoned by her again. During this visit, he allegedly stole her house keys. He returned later to attack the woman who, the police say, he had become obsessed with.
The police say that the guard was a suspect because he did not show up at work after her body was found. He was reportedly located at a train station; the police believe he was making an attempt to flee the city.