Little Rock police arrest suspect in Indian techie`s murder

Lalit K Jha
Washington, Jan 16 (PTI) A 20-year old man "strongly
suspected" to have killed an Indian-techie, working with the
the scam-hit Satyam Computers, was arrested by the police in
the Arkansas state of the US.
The Little Rock Police is interrogating the suspect in
connection with the killing of Andhra Pradesh engineer Akshay
Vishal, who was shot dead on Tuesday, in the seventh case of
young students and professionals from the state being killed
in the last 14 months.

Name and other details of the arrested suspected
assailant have not been released yet by the police, however
the local media identified the arrested person as 20-year-old
Brandon Johnson.

"We have been interviewing him (arrested person suspected
of carrying out the murder) all day today," an official of
Little Rock City Police Department told PTI on condition of
anonymity, as he is not authorised to speak to the media.

"He is a strong suspect (of the murder)," the official
said, adding that three search warrants have also been issued
in past two days.

"The person, who we believe did it (the murder), is right
here (arrested), but we are not releasing the details as
investigation is still going on. We can't release any more
detail at this point of time," the official said.

The police, who has been carrying an intensive
investigation into the murder of Vishal, said more than a
dozen people have been interrogated so far as part of the
investigation.

Robbery is believed to be the prime motive behind the
murder, investigations so far have revealed, the police said.

The police said the same night one more individual was
murdered. "We are trying to investigate if there is any link
between the two or both the different," the officials said.

Meanwhile local Little Rock media reported that Johnson
has been involved in as many as 12 robberies and three murders
in the past one month. Of these two of the murders, including
that of Vishal, happened on the same day.

Vishal, 26, who came to the US from India, worked with
Dessault Falcon Jet on behalf of Satyam. His neighbours said
he lived with his girlfriend, who called the police after he
was shot at by the assailant. A profusely bleeding Vishal was
taken to hospital, where he succumbed to injuries.

Meanwhile, the Indian Consulate in Houston has dispatched
a senior official to help local authorities arrange quick
transfer of body to India.

The killing is the latest one in the series of murders of
Indian students and professionals in the US.

Arpana B Jinaga, an IT engineer in Seattle was found dead
in her apartment on November 3 while an engineering student in
Southern Illionis University T Soumya Reddy was found murdered
in September. Her cousin Vikram Reddy, also a software
engineer in Chicago, was also found dead nearby. PTI