Mumbai Crime: Neighbour kills woman who resisted rape attempt

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A 19-year-old girl was allegedly murdered by her neighbour while she was alone at her Dombivli home on Tuesday. The accused first allegedly tried to rape her and when she refused, he strangled her to death. The incident was registered at Ramnagar police station and investigation is on.

The girl is a BSc student and was living with her mother in Ramnagar area since 2002. The 22-year-old accused Deepak Bhanage, who is unemployed, came to live in the same building on the ground floor four-five years ago. On Tuesday evening, when the victim's mother had gone to a relative's place for a function, she returned to see her daughter unconscious on the floor. She rushed her to hospital but she was declared dead on arrival.

According to investigation, that evening, after the woman's mother had gone out, Bhanage had knocked on the door and told the woman that some squirrels has entered her house from the balcony and he wanted to catch them. She allowed him in but when she went into the kitchen, he locked the main door and tried to force himself on her. She pushed him off and shouted loudly for help, but he asphyxiated her with a pillow.

Ramnagar police station PI N Jadhav said, "We checked CCTV footage and found the man's behaviour suspicious. When we questioned him, he confessed to the murder."

A friend of the woman said that she had come to the city for her studies and was living here with her mother, while the rest of her family lives in Bangalore. "She had wanted to do MSc and her family was very keen that she study further. We all are shocked."

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