IBM techie's friend murdered her for cash, says Police

BENGALURU: Kusum Rani Singla, the 31-year-old techie employed with IBM in Bengaluru, who was found strangulated in her Kadugodi apartment on Wednesday, was done to death by an acquaintance, apparently for money. Additional Commissioner of Police (East) P Harishekaran named a certain Sukhbir Singh of Ribar village in Haryana, as the suspect.Singh was arrested from Gurgaon within 24 hours of the crime.

Singh, who had worked with top firms in the city, was unemployed since 2013, the officer said. Singh and Kusum met on Facebook and the former was on a visit to Bengaluru to meet Kusum. A heated argument broke out between them when Singh demanded money and Kusum refused, Harishekaran said. He strangulated her with a laptop chord and also stabbed her on her eyebrow with a pen before fleeing with her three debit and credit cards, cheque book and mobile phone.

It was while police checked the dead woman's call details that they found that several calls were made to her number from Haryana. Police said that Singh had managed to get Kusum's ATM pin numbers and withdrew Rs 11,000 from an ATM in Marathalli ring road.Later, in Delhi, he apparently withdrew Rs 34,000.