BENGALURU: A recent fatal attack on a 27-year-old doctor here led police to what they said was a shocking tale of betrayal and revenge, starting with the deceased sharing intimate pictures of his architect fiancee on social media and climaxing in the latter and three classmates of hers allegedly plotting a murderous assault on him.
Dr Vikash Ranjan, a native of Chennai and resident of Bengaluru, died in hospital on September 14, four days after he was apparently invited to the house of one of the suspects and attacked with a mop and a water bottle.
The fiancee and two of her alleged accomplices have been arrested and remanded in police custody. The fourth suspect, is on the run. Before the assault, he had been confronted by his fiancee over her private pictures finding their way into an Instagram account Vikash had opened in someone else’s name, police said.
Vikash purportedly told his fiancée, with whom he had been in a relationship for two years, that he posted the pictures "for fun". The woman was incensed to learn that the man she was to marry allegedly also shared her private pictures with some friends in Tamil Nadu.
She and two of her alleged accomplices, identified as architects Sushil and Gautham, were arrested on September 16 and remanded in police custody. The fourth suspect, Surya, is on the run, the police said.
TOI is withholding the woman's name because the slain doctor's alleged act of uploading her private pictures on social media possibly makes her a victim too.
News of the motive behind Vikash's murder comes amid an uproar in Punjab's Mohali's over a girl student of Chandigarh University sharing her private pictures with her boyfriend, setting off a cycle of rumours about her also leaking photos of many fellow boarders at the institute's hostel.
Vikash had completed his MBBS in Ukraine and practised medicine in Chennai for two years before moving to Bengaluru four months ago to train for the Foreign Medical Graduates Examination, a screening test conducted by the National Medical Commission.
The doctor allegedly opened an Instagram account using a friend’s name to upload his fiancée’s private pictures.
The woman came to know of this on September 8, after which she confided in her classmate Sushil about feeling hurt and betrayed. They allegedly decided to teach Vikash a lesson and roped in Gautham and Surya.
The arrested trio claimed they didn’t intend to kill Vikash. When he became unconscious during the assault, they took him to a hospital.
The woman then informed her fiancée’s elder brother, Vijay, that Vikash was injured during an altercation with her friends when she was on a call. Based on a complaint filed by Vijay, police registered an attempt to murder case against the suspects, which was converted into a murder charge after Vikash died.

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