A love triangle ended in a brutal murder at a five-star hotel in Guwahati on Monday, and was solved swiftly before the accused could fly half a thousand kilometres away to Kolkata.
Sandip Kumar Kamble, 44, was found dead last afternoon at the Azara hotel near Guwahati airport. The accused – Anjali Shaw, 25, and her boyfriend Bikash Kumar Shaw, 23 – were to board a flight to Kolkata later in the night, but prompt police response led to their arrest before they could reach the airport.
Kamble, a car dealer from Pune, was first spotted by hotel staff lying on the floor of his room, bleeding profusely from his nose. Anjali, who worked at a restaurant at the Kolkata airport, was in a relationship with Kamble, who she had befriended at the airport last year, said sources.
However, this led to complications since Anjali was already in a relationship with Bikash, who had been pressuring her to marry him. What complicated the issue further was that the victim had intimate pictures with her on his phone, Anjali said during her interrogation.
This prompted the couple – Anjali and Bikash – to devise a plan to confront Kamble over those photos. They had earlier planned to meet at the Kolkata airport, but Kamble moved it to Guwahati, where he booked a room in the five-star hotel.
The couple flew to Guwahati together but parted ways on reaching there. Bikash booked a room for himself in the same hotel without Kamble’s knowledge.
As per their plan, Anjali was joined by Kamble in the city and they checked into the hotel together, the sources said. Meanwhile, Bikash arrived separately.
During their meeting, Bikash’s arrival enraged Kamble and a fight erupted between the two. The fight left Kamble injured, seeing which the couple fled. They also took away two mobile phones belonging to Kamble – which allegedly had their intimate photos.
A phone call from Bikash later in the day alerted the hotel authorities and they informed the Guwahati city police. The cops promptly went through the hotel register, CCTV footage, and airport passengers’ list to zero in on the two suspects. Anjali and Bikash were arrested near the hotel before they could board the 9:15 pm flight to Kolkata.
The case remains under investigation as the cops are trying to piece together the events that led to their fight.