Bangalore call center employee found murdered on highway

Even before the brutal rape and murder of call center employee Pratibha Srikantamurthy in December last year could fade from public memory, the recovery of the dead body of another call center staff on the Bangalore-Mangalore highway with multiple stab injuries yesterday has sent shock waves across the Bangalore.

Police have identified the deceased as 24-year-old Tanya Banerjee, a native of Howrah in West Bengal. She is reported to have left her office Aviva Customer Operations Services Ltd., in Whitefield in Bangalore around 9.30 pm after work on Tuesday. Her dead body with several stab injuries on the face and torso was sighted by villagers near Sakleshpur, about 200 kms away from Bangalore on the national highway leading to Mangalore.

The body was identified from the office ID card, which was hanging from her neck, police said. “She was wearing a red T-shirt and black pants. Her ornaments, ear-rings and bangle are intact, revealing no visible signs of rape”, Hassan’s Superintendent of Police Pandurang Rane told reporters.

But, there were at least 20 stab wounds on the body, particularly in the abdomen area. Preliminary investigation indicates that the murder took place at some other place as there were no tell-tale signs of blood or any weapon near the dead body, police said.

A post-mortem on Tanya Banerjee was conducted at Sakleshpur hospital yesterday and the report has suggested that she had been killed around 5 am on Wednesday morning, police said.

Meanwhile, police investigation has revealed that Tanya was staying as a paying guest in Bangalore’s Frazer Town. The management of the call center, where Tanya worked, said the employee did not opt for the company’s transport since the last two days. Even on Tuesday night when she left the office around 9.30 pm, Tanya had used her own means of transport.

The Bangalore police was planning to question Tanya’s boy-friend, who had claimed that she had sent him a SMS at 7 am yesterday morning that she was leaving for Kolkata. “How could he receive a SMS at 7 am when the port mortem report suggests that she was killed at 5 pm”, a colleague of Tanya’s told reporters.

Meanwhile, Aviva Customer Operations Services Ltd., Bangalore, has expressed shock over the brutal killing of its employee.

It may be mentioned here that Pratibha Srikantamurthy had been raped and murdered by the driver her car in Bangalore during December last year.