New Delhi, Oct 26 (IANS) A 34-year-old PhD scholar of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi, who was arrested for the murder of a Manipur teenager, is of “pervert and maniacal” nature and suffers from obsessive compulsive disorder, Delhi Police said Monday.
“Pushpum Sinha is suffering from obsessive compulsive disorder. And some articles showing his pervert nature and maniacal obsession have been recovered from his rented room,” Deputy Commissioner of Police (south) H.G.S. Dhaliwal told reporters here.

Sinha, who is unmarried, was arrested late Monday after four hours of intense questioning by police. According to the police he has confessed to strangulating his 19-year-old neighbour, Ramchanphy Hongray, in her Munirka home in south Delhi. He then burnt the girl’s face to mislead the police into thinking she got killed in an accidental fire.

The police have ruled out rape.

Recounting the events, the police said that on Saturday around 4.30 p.m., Sinha found that the girl was alone in the house. He entered the kitchen where she was and made advances towards her. When she protested, he got scared and strangled her to death.

“He feared that the girl would report about him to others and he would face police action. He then torched her face. But because of the fire, her torso also suffered 30 percent burn injuries,” Dhaliwal said.

Earlier, the police thought it was a case of accidental fire. However, the post-mortem examination revealed that she did not die of burns but had been strangulated.

Dhaliwal said the girl’s sister Timila, who works in a Delhi restaurant, had during the investigations raised suspicions about her next door neighbour Sinha.

“Timila said he was trying to befriend her sister but there was never any occasion when she had made any complaint about him. On Diwali they had burnt fire crackers together, so he mistakenly thought that she was attracted to him,” Dhaliwal said.

He said that Sinha, a B. Tech from Allahabad University and M.Sc (Engg.) from IISc Bangalore, was suffering from obsessive compulsive disorder - a mental disorder characterized by intrusive thoughts that produce anxiety and repetitive behaviour aimed at reducing anxiety, or by a combination of such obsessions and behaviour compulsions.

“His dairy, laptop and writing on the walls suggest that he was a pervert and suffers from maniacal obsession,” he added.

A police officer said that in his dairy Sinha has scribbled that everyone should have a girlfriend and whenever he had tried, he had failed. He also wrote that he was unable to get married yet.

His parents are retired. His father was deputy director from Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) and mother a doctor in a government hospital in Bihar.