Techie murder: Police custody of accused extended till Feb 7

A local court on Saturday extended the police custody of Bhaben Saikia, arrested for the murder of Infosys employee Rasila Raju OP, till February 7.

Saikia, deployed as a security guard, allegedly strangled Rasila near her work station on the ninth floor of Infosys building in Hinjawadi in Pune on January 29 after she had reprimanded him for staring at her.

Saikia, who hails from Assam's Lakhimpur district, was produced in the Shivajinagar sessions court on Saturday.

Demanding his further police custody, public prosecutor D More said police wanted to verify the route he had taken to flee to Mumbai after committing the crime.

Police also wanted to probe whether any other person helped him commit the crime or to escape afterwards.

Saikia's lawyer Advocate Tausif Shaikh said there was no need for further custody as police had already recovered all the relevant evidence such as Rasila's access card and the clothes and shoes which the accused was wearing at the time of the alleged crime.

Judicial Magistrate (First Class) A S Barulkar extended Saikia's police custody till February 7 after hearing the arguments.

Saikia was heard speaking to his lawyer in Marathi outside the court before the proceedings began. Asked how he could speak Marathi so well, he said he had heard about Raj Thackeray-led MNS's agitation against non-Marathi speaking migrants, and therefore the first thing he did after landing here to look for a job one year ago was to join a class to learn Marathi.