Overview
- Police identified the victim as 34-year-old software engineer Sharmila D. K., who was found after a January 3 apartment fire in Subramanya Layout, Ramamurthy Nagar.
- The suspect, 18-year-old neighbour Karnal Kurai, was arrested on January 10 and remanded to three days of police custody.
- Investigators say he confessed to entering through a sliding window around 9 pm to seek sexual favours and smothered her when she resisted.
- Officers report he piled clothes in the flatmate’s room to start a fire to destroy evidence and fled with the victim’s mobile phone, which later helped trace him.
- He has been booked under Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita sections including 103(1) for murder, 64(2), 66, and 238 for destruction of evidence, with further forensic and digital analysis continuing.