Three months after an Air India airhostess and three members of her family were killed by her colleague, the police in Karnataka’s Udupi have filed a chargesheet for murder and attempt to murder against the accused.
The Malpe police, who filed the chargesheet on February 12, have also charged Pravin Arun Chougule, 39, with house trespass (Section 449), causing voluntary hurt with a dangerous weapon (Section 324), and destruction of evidence (Section 201).
The Udupi police arrested Chougule on November 15,2023, after tracking him down to the home of a relative in Belagavi where he had fled after committing the murders in the Nejaru village on November 12.
Chougule is accused of murdering his colleague Aynaz M, 21, an air hostess, her mother Haseena M, 47, an elder sister Afnan M N, 23, and a teenage brother Aseem M, 14 at the family’s home in Udupi. He is also accused of attempting to kill Hajira M, the grandmother of Aynaz – who managed to evade the attack by locking herself in a bathroom.
The Udupi police have indicated the motive behind the quadruple murders to be Chougule’s obsession with the airhostess after a failed eight month friendship. In a voluntary statement, Chougule has reportedly stated that he intended to attack his colleague Aynaz and that he murdered the others as they tried to stop him.
The police picked up the trail of the suspect based on eyewitness statements, including Hajira who escaped the attack, local auto-rickshaw drivers, CCTV footage and technical evidence like cellular phone usage, to carry out the arrest.
In December 2023, an Udupi district court had rejected the bail plea of Chougule, a married man with two children, on the grounds of the seriousness of the case.
© The Indian Express Pvt Ltd
First uploaded on: 14-02-2024 at 11:58 IST
