'Ex-friend' held for Delhi showroom murder footage reveals teenager's last struggles

     New Delhi, Nov 15 (PTI) A 29-year-old man was arrested on Sunday for allegedly killing a teenage girl inside a clothing showroom in West Delhi's Moti Nagar area, a police officer said.

     Police also retrieved CCTV footage that caught the victim's desperate last struggles and pleadings with her alleged killer.

     The accused, Suraj, is being questioned to ascertain the exact motive behind the Saturday murder, including a suspected fallout after a romantic relationship, the officer said.

     The CCTV footage purportedly showed Suraj repeatedly assaulting 18-year-old Shabnam inside the showroom, as she tried to escape, screaming.

     At one point, she sits down and tries to protect herself from the blows, which the accused kept raining down on her.

     The man then drags her by her hair to the trial room, where he allegedly slices her throat.

     Shabnam worked at the showroom near the Moti Nagar Metro Station. Her body was found inside the trial room by the staff the same evening, the police said.

     According to the preliminary investigation, Shabnam and Suraj were on friendly terms, but their relationship had reportedly soured over the past few months.

     The police are also looking into allegations by the victim's family that the accused had assaulted her earlier.

     According to accounts reported by people familiar with the incident, Shabnam was seen at the showroom around 6.45 pm on Saturday, using her mobile phone.

     Around 7.30 pm, her employer could not find her and called a woman, an ex-employer of Shabnam, and told her about the assault. The woman came to the showroom.

     Some people examined the CCTV footage and noticed that while the man had left the premises, Shabnam did not.

     "Suspecting that she could still be inside, they returned to the showroom around 8.30 pm and began searching the premises. During the search, they noticed her scarf lying near the trial room. They also spotted blood seeping out from underneath the door," the officer said.

     It was 9 pm by the time they found her body and called the police.

     A team which responded to the call found injury marks on her neck caused by a sharp-edged weapon and a blood-stained knife by her body. Her body was sent to Deen Dayal Upadhyay Hospital for a post-mortem.

     The police examined the footage from inside the showroom and surrounding areas to reconstruct the sequence of events, establish the accused's movements and trace his escape route.

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)