Bangalore call center employee murdered by boyfriend

The Bangalore police have cracked the mystery behind the gruesome murder of 32-year-old call center employee Tanya Banerjee, whose dead body bearing multiple stab injuries was recovered from Bangalore-Mangalore highway, by arresting her boyfriend.

Additional Commissioner of Bangalore City Police Bipin Gopalakrishna told reporters on Thursday that Tanya’s boyfriend and colleague Gururaj Kishore had confessed to killing her in a fit of rage after she spurned his romantic overtures. Police had picked up Gururaj Kishore from his residence after Tanya’s colleagues saw both of them leave the office together on the fateful Tuesday night.

The recovery of Tanya’s dead body in Shiradi Ghats in Sakleshpur along the Bangalore-Mangalore highway, about 200 kms from Bangalore, on Wednesday had revived the ghastly memories of rape and murder of another 24-year-old call center employee Prathiba Srikantmurthy in December 2005.

Tanya, a native of Howrah in West Bengal, worked as a client analyst with BPO firm Aviva 24/7 in Whitefield in Bangalore. The 27-year-old Gururaj Kishore was her colleague in the same BPO and her boyfriend.

Investigations have revealed that Gururaj Kishore had been pestering Tanya to marry him and had even told other colleagues in the office that they were husband and wife, much to Tanya’s resentment.

On Tuesday night, Tanya left office after her shift ended at 9.30 pm along with Gururaj Kishore in his car. It is believed that Gururaj proposed marriage to her, but she refused. “After a serious misunderstanding, Gururaj whipped out a knife and stabbed Tanya. The post-mortem report shows that she had been stabbed 32 times in various parts of abdomen, neck and face”, Bipin Gopalakrishna said.

The murder is believed to have taken place in Bangalore and Gururaj had driven the car along the Bangalore-Mangalore highway and dumped the dead body in Shiradi Ghats, about 200 kms away from Bangalore.

A bus driver noticed Tanya’s body lying in the middle of the road near Maranahalli in the Shiradi ghats and alerted the local police. Her identity was established with the help of the office ID card, which was hanging from neck. “She was wearing a red T-shirt and black pants. Her ornaments, ear-rings and bangle are intact, revealing no visible signs of rape”, 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.

Tanya’s grisly murder within seven months after Pratibha Srikantamurthy’s brutal rape and killing has raised serious concerns about the safety of women employees in the bustling BPO of Bangalore, which employs more than 100,000 workers.