MARYLAND, Jan 6: The father of a 27-year-old Indian-origin woman who was stabbed to death in Howard County, Maryland, has demanded strict punishment for the accused as conflicting reports emerged over the suspect’s arrest in India.
Nikitha Godishala, living in Ellicott City, was found dead with multiple stab wounds and other trauma to her body on January 2, days after she was allegedly killed on New Year’s Eve.
Howard County has identified Arjun Sharma (26), Nikitha’s former roommate, as the prime suspect. US authorities allege that Sharma stabbed her inside an apartment near the Mall in Columbia on December 31, later filed a missing report of her on January 2, and fled the United States the same day via Dulles International Airport in northern Virginia, CBS news reported.
Speaking to reporters, Nikitha’s father, Anand Godishala, a resident of Hyderabad, rejected reports that the accused was his daughter’s ex-boyfriend and said the motive behind the killing was financial.
“My daughter went to Columbia four years ago and was working there. He was her ex-roommate, not her ex-boyfriend,” Anand Godishala said. “Four people lived in the apartment. He used to take a lot of money from my daughter. When she asked him to return the money before he flew to India, he killed her and ran away.”
He appealed to authorities for “tough punishment” for the accused and urged the governments to expedite the process of handing over his daughter’s body to the family.
Howard County police earlier said the killing appeared to be premeditated and that Sharma would face “first and second-degree murder charges once extradited to the United States”.
Meanwhile, conflicting reports have surfaced regarding the suspect’s whereabouts. However, Howard County police told WJZ Investigates said the international manhunt was continuing with assistance from Interpol.
“The U.S. Attorney’s office works with Interpol, which is an international organization, and they will eventually issue what is known as a ‘red notice’-basically an international arrest warrant, so from there that goes out to all the countries that work with Interpol, which is close to 200 countries, including India, so that will give Indian authorities information,” Seth Hoffman with Howard County police said Sunday evening.
“And they will begin to track him and hopefully arrest him, and from there, it could take quite a bit of time to process and hopefully get him extradited,” he added.
In a post on X, the Embassy of India in Washington said that it was in contact with Nikitha Godishala’s family and was extending all possible consular assistance, adding that it was following up on the matter with local authorities.
(UNI)
Follow our WhatsApp channel
