Engineering student killed after failed rape bid

Mumbai, Sep 4: A 19-year-old engineering student from Virarwas hacked to death by her boyfriend's friend on Friday after she resisted his attempt to rape her. The victim was reportedly hit over 17 times and the axe was found stuck to her abdomen when police arrived at the house of the accused where the crime took place.

Aishwarya Agarwal, a second -year student of Viva College, used to meet her boyfriend Sohail Shaikh (22) in his friend Deepak Wagri's flat at Om Shiv CHS in Virar (west) regularly. Wagri, a vegetable vendor, and his wife would leave for work while their two kids would be in school when the couple would spend time together in the flat. While Aishwarya was a resident of Gokul Township, Shaikh lives at Boling and has a godown for bottled water.

At around 2pm on Friday, Aishwarya, as planned, came to the flat to meet Shaikh. Taking advantage of the fact that her boyfriend had not arrived yet, Wagri (28) tried to sexually abuse Aishwarya. Facing resistance from her, Wagri, in a fit of rage, picked up an axe and attacked her with it. When Shaikh reached, he found Aishwarya in a pool of blood and approached police.

Wagri, who has been arrested, has reportedly confessed to having attempted to rape Aishwarya. He told police that since she was in a physical relationship with Shaikh, he thought of exploiting her. But she resisted and began screaming, so he attacked her with the axe. The girl's body was semi-nude when police arrived, and it's not clear if Wagri had sexually abused her.

Shaikh told police that he had known Aishwarya since childhood and they were in a relationship since a year and a half and wanted to get married. Her parents, he said, knew about the affair and were opposed to it. The couple reportedly had been fighting over their relationship in recent days in Wagri's flat. Shaikh has been detained for questioning. Wagri has been charged with murder and will be produced in Vasai court on Saturday.