Pune Techie Murder Probe: Accused Purchased Gun from Friend Who Allegedly Shot Girlfriend & Then Died by Suicide

The twin cities were gripped with shock after 30-year-old Rishabh Rajesh Nigam, a resident of Lucknow, shot five bullets at his 26-year-old software engineer girlfriend Vandana Dwivedi in an OYO Township hotel room number 306 at Laxmi Chowk in Hinjewadi over suspicion that she was in a relationship with someone else. The bullet pierced the victim's head and neck, killing her on the spot. The accused was produced before the court on Monday and given police custody till February 6 for investigating the possession of a weapon, medical examination of the accused, and further investigation of the crime.

Vandana. K. Dwivedi (age 26, resident of Lucknow) was allegedly murdered in the OYO Township hotel in Hinjewadi on the night of January 27, which was revealed to the police on January 28 morning. The Navi Mumbai police crime branch received a tip-off about Nigam and nabbed him near Vashi. Accordingly, Assistant police inspector Somnath Panchal registered a complaint at the Hinjewadi police station and the body of the victim was handed over to her family on January 29.

According to the police, Rishab purchased the gun from his friend in Lucknow in 2015-16. However, it was revealed that the friend who sold the pistol to Rishab killed his girlfriend by shooting her and later died by suicide. Further probe into the case revealed that Vandana and Rishab were neighbours in Lucknow and attended the same college where they fell in love with each other. Vandana completed her engineering degree and got a job in an IT company in Hinjewadi she shifted to Pune and started staying in a PG near her company while Rishab started working as a real estate broker in Lucknow. Vandana and Rishab were in a long-distance relationship and had regular conversations on mobile phones. The accused Rishab thought that Vandana was ignoring him and not talking to him as expected. And he suspected that she was seeing someone else which led to major disagreements between Rishab and Vandana for the past four years.  

As the suspicion grew, he travelled to Hinjewadi on January 25 and booked room number 306 in OYO Township in Hinjewadi. Rishab and Vandan met in the hotel room on January 26 in the morning and returned to her PG accommodation the same day. Rishab called Vandana to meet on January 27 and the couple reportedly went out for dinner and shopping. They returned to the hotel at about 9:00 PM after spending the full day together. At around 9:30 PM, Rishab pulled out his gun and fired five rounds towards Vandana, who, according to the autopsy reports, hit her head and neck. Leaving Vandana soaking in the pool of blood, Rishab left the hotel room and planned to flee the city.

Meanwhile, Navi Mumbai Crime Branch Unit-1 received a tip-off from an informer about a man in possession of a gun travelling in a taxi in Navi Mumbai. Accordingly, the police laid a trap and nabbed Rishab. In further interrogations with the Navi Mumbai police Rishab confessed to killing Vandana, the Navi Mumbai police immediately contacted the information to Hinjewadi police. Hinjewadi police immediately rushed to the hotel and recovered Vandana’s body from the hotel room almost twelve hours after the murder.

While five shots were fired, surprisingly, no hotel employee heard the gunshots. The hotel employees claimed that they mistook the gunshots to be firecrackers.