Father of the slain techie says his daughter Rashila Raju was being harassed by a senior manager and alleges the security guard could not have acted alone; blames security lapses for her death
Rashila Raju and the accused Bhaben Saikiya
The accused Bhaben Saikiya and Rashila Raju
Pune: "This [murder] cannot be the act of one security guard. There are chances of more people, including a superior, being involved in this case," alleged a grieving Raju O, father of Infosys techie Rashila Raju, who was gruesomely murdered in her Pune office by a security guard on Sunday. The guard is now in police custody.
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Also read: Pune techie Rasila Raju murdered for resenting security guard's 'stare'
"With great hope, I had sent my daughter to work in Infosys, but due to their security lapses, she is no more. For the past five months, she had been requesting her seniors to transfer her to Bengaluru as she was not happy in the city, because her superior was harassing her. My daughter had complained about the harassment being meted out by the superior to a relative and me," said 55-year-old Raju O, a former Army officer.
On Sunday evening, 24-year-old Rashila was found lying in pool of blood in her office cabin around 8.30 pm in Pune's Hinjewadi Phase II area. The Hinjewadi police suspected murder and held prime suspect Bhaben Saikiya, the security guard, from CST on Monday morning. Rashila had been working with Infosys for the past eight months. Her reporting manager Abhijeet Amrut Kothari told the police that she had been working on Sunday to complete a project.
Raju O
'Won't take her body'
Raju said, "I had last communicated with my daughter on Saturday. She told me that her superior is not accepting her demand for a transfer to Bengaluru. It is closer to Kerala and she could travel. But all of this is my mistake; had I asked her to leave the job instead, I would have saved my daughter." He added, "I cannot digest that my daughter was alone working in office with no colleagues around. Infosys has security round the clock, then how come my daughter was alone and why and how did the guard get hold of her access card? My daughter's mobile handsets are missing. If she was unavailable on her phone since 5 pm, why did it take around three hours to reach her? Had they acted in time, she could have been saved. Until and unless the superiors do not give me any details, I will not take her body from the mortuary."
Innocent and hardworking
Remembering his last meeting with Rashila, Raju said, "Rashila was very innocent and hardworking. I raised my children so that they could stand on their own feet. Just last month, she had come home for a family function and we had a great time. We had a house-warming ceremony next month for our home in Kerala as it was being renovated. The renovation was a dream come true for her. She'd designed her room and our bedroom. Rashila, come back." Raju and members of the Muslim Kerala Jamat on Monday evening gheraoed the HR head of Infosys, Kavita Kulkarni. They grilled her for two hours, but Kulkarni had no replies to their grievances.
The Infosys campus at Hinjewadi Phase I
Nailing the guard
Senior inspector Arun Waykar of Hinjewadi police station said, "We inspected the CCTV footage as well as the information about the staffers working on Sunday. Bhaben was seen near her office cubicle but later, he vanished from the office. We suspect that Bhaben is involved in the murder because he had nothing to do on the ninth floor. During interrogation, he said he had an argument with the deceased because he was staring at her. She had verbally abused him and threatened to mail her superiors about it."
Also read: Pune woman techie murder: Did security guard strangle the 24-year-old?
Bhaben's fingerprints have been found on the wires. While he hasn't admitted to the murder, the police have charted the moments leading up to it. Waykar said, "Bhaben had later used her access card to get some computer equipment from the office, after which, with help of yellow LAN wires he strangulated her and also kicked and punched her. Bhaben escaped around 7 pm. Considering the primary medical report, the murder took place between 4 pm and 5 pm." On Monday, he was produced before the court of judicial magistrate (first class) and has been remanded in police custody till February 4.
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