New Delhi:
The police on Friday cracked the murder case of Delhi-based medical practitioner Garima Mishra with the arrest of her roommate and former colleague from Roorkee when he was trying to commit suicide.
27-year-old Chandra Prakash Verma was consumed by guilt over killing Mishra and tried to end his life in Haridwar and Roorkee but was unsuccessful, police said.
Verma was arrested by a team of Delhi Police's crime branch in the morning while he was trying to jump into the Ganga Nahar in Roorkee. He confessed to killing Mishra, 25, and said he was "over possessive" about her but she showed no interest in him, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Crime) G Ram Gopal Naik said.
Police used his call records and WhatsApp activities to trace him.
The body of Mishra, a medical practitioner, was found with her throat slit at her rented accommodation late Tuesday night. The autopsy report revealed that she was throttled and smothered after being stabbed.
During interrogation, the accused revealed that he worked as a junior resident doctor at a hospital in Karol Bagh and met Mishra there. He was staying in a rented flat at Ranjit Nagar on sharing basis with one Rakesh Yadav.
Mishra was looking for a flat when the accused offered one room of his rented flat to her which she accepted.
After Mishra shifted to the house, the man felt she was interested in him.
Meanwhile, she left the job and started preparing for MD and started spending more time on her studies. This irritated him and he started thinking that she was avoiding him. One day, he offered her to accompany him to watch a movie, but she refused. This made their relation bitter, the officer said.
On April 30, the accused went to her room and asked her for the change in her attitude towards him. This resulted in a heated argument between them followed by a scuffle. The accused then strangulated Mishra, who had already fainted, he said.
Verma then brutally slit her throat and fled away. He took a bag pack and took a bus to Haridwar. He reached Rishikesh where he stayed for one-and-a-half day in a guest house and "desperately" tried to commit suicide.
He enquired people about the depth of the river Ganga and chances of one's survival if one jumps into the river. Meanwhile, he also tried to come in contact with the transformer and get electrocuted. But his attempts failed, he added.
Verma made many attempts to commit suicide, but could not gather the courage to do so due to the fear that if he survived, he would be left with permanent disability and it would further ruin the future of his family, police said.
(With PTI inputs)
