BENGALURU, 16 MARCH

Seshadripuram police have arrested two housekeeping staff members of a hotel in the City on charges of murdering a 27-year-old woman from Uzbekistan on 13 March for money.

Zarina Djeparova was in Bengaluru on a 10-day holiday. She checked into Jagadish Hotel in the City on 5 March. Djeparova was found dead in her hotel room on Wednesday night by hotel staff who opened the room with a master key after she failed to open the door, police said. She was found to have been smothered to death.

Police found that two members of the housekeeping staff at the hotel had disappeared on the evening of 13 March. CCTV footage at the hotel also linked the suspects to the murder.

Police tracked the accused Amruth and Robert, both natives of Assam, to Kerala where they had fled. They killed the Uzbek national to get her money and phone. The police have recovered Rs 13,000 and some Uzbekistan currency Som as well as the mobile phone of the victim from the accused.

According to a police complaint filed by Gaurav Singh, the hotel manager, the woman from Uzbekistan was brought to the hotel by the broker Rahul Kumar on 5 March and had been given room number 219 on the second floor for her stay until 16 March.

On the day she was found dead, she sent Rs 5,500 for the day’s room rent to the hotel staff around noon and was reportedly not seen later. Later at night, Kumar called manager Singh and reported that Djeparova was not answering her phone and asked the hotel staff to check her room. When the staff opened the door, they found the Uzbek national lying dead on her bed.