Polo Garden murder: Killer’s trail goes cold

Ashraf Khan, 26, the security guard of Polo Garden apartments who killed State-Bank-of-Mysore cashier Anasuya S on October 7 is still at large. Khan had attacked Anasuya in the lift. Her throat was slit and she was stabbed several times. Khan attacked Anasuya in full view of many residents, but none of them stepped forward to help her.  A day after the murder, the police traced a call from Khan’s cellphone to Assam. They also got information that he was hiding in a town 240 km away from Guwahati, Assam.

A team headed by a sub-inspector rushed to Assam to apprehend Khan, but returned empty-handed. “When we went to his house, it came to light that Khan did not go there. Instead, he is hiding elsewhere,” said the police.

Initially, he was using the same instrument and cellphone number, which he used in Bangalore. By the time the police team reached Assam, his cellphone’s tower location could not be traced. Khan had stopped using his old cellphone number and the instrument. He might have changed the phone and number, added the police.

The police have questioned some of his family members and friends. “We have learned that he is not in Assam or in surrounding areas,” said the police.

“We suspect he has begun work some place else and we have passed information about him to the police station of an area where we suspect he might be hiding,” added the police. It might take a couple of years to trace him and a separate team will work on this case, said the police.

Investigation revealed that Khan had been misbehaving with women in the apartment complex, but nobody complained. Khan used to work for a security agency that provided security services to Polo Garden apartments. He quit the job, but the Polo Garden residents continued to employ him. His behaviour changed during his second stint on the job. Khan was trying to physically abuse many women, but they only warned him instead of escalating the matter.