The macaca crime blotter is on overdrive this month.

Long time readers may remember the story of Karishma Dhanak, 20, a UC Irvine student who was found murdered alongside her father about 3 years back. The crime was allegedly committed by her sister’s former boyfriend who wanted revenge on the parents for being responsible for the relationship ending, apparently religion was a factor.

NDTV reports that the accused, 25-year-old Indian national Iftekhar Murtaza, is currently on trial in Orange county, California.

Prosecutors in California’s Orange County had last week said they will seek death penalty for Murtaza, who is charged with conspiring and murdering his Indian-American ex-girlfriend Shayona Dhanak’s father Jaypraykash Dhanak (56) and sister Karishma (20) as well as attempting to murder her mother Leela (54) and setting the victims’ bodies on fire.

Also on trial with Murtaza are two of his acquintances whom he is alleged to have conspired with online to commit the above crimes. One can only imagine the sort of conversation that took place online leading to this ghastly deed.
Ifthekar Murtaza: Hey guys
Crony 1: Hey
Crony 2: Wassup?
IM: My gf’s parents forced us to break up FML
Crony 1: Let’s kill the parents LOL
Crony 2: Let’s burn down the house ROFL

Al Gore did not have this mind when he created the Internet.

---

The second story is a tragic tale of a missing Chicago area Indian woman whose body was found in the river. [Sify]

Apparently there were no signs of foul play and the victim’s body was recovered with jewelery intact leading authorities to believe it was a suicide.

An Indian-American who was reported to have disappeared from her Maine Township home near here in January was found dead in the Des Plaines River and authorities suspected suicide in her drowning death.
The body of Sangitagen Patel, 32, was recovered Sunday afternoon in Allison Woods Forest Preserve in unincorporated Wheeling Township, according to a Cook County Sheriff’s office release.
Pael (sic) was last seen on Jan 2 as she left for her job at a Subway restaurant in Wheeling.

Truly tragic and our thoughts and prayers are with the family.

---

The third story is a lighter one, one of a desi cat burglar in San Francisco, one with a taste for high fashion. [ABCLocal] (maisnon via email)

Police say Pooja Gandhi was a prolific burglar who was good at her trade. Investigators finally identified her through fingerprints found at two recent burglaries, but for the past six to eight months police say she was very busy.
Police say she broke into apartments, homes for sale and stores across the city, burglarizing them at ease. Pooja Gandhi, 30, they say was a skillful equal opportunity cat burglar.

A desi equal opportunity cat burglar. Now you can truly say you’ve seen it all. Her modus operandi was as simple as it was effective.

“She didn’t raise a whole lot of suspicion, so she was allowed to come and go behind people. She may have piggy backed on doorways where she would follow someone in who was going into a building,” said San Francisco Sgt. Marty Lalor who is heading the investigation.
“The girl looked like anybody. She could be at the restaurant having dinner with us,” said Sanchez.

A. Looking at the above mugshot it is hard to imagine how a fairer skinned version of Sanjaya did not raise any suspicion.
B. We’ve truly come a long way in this county if desis are not being looked at with suspicion. While we wholeheartedly welcome this change in attitude, we would also like to encourage our fellow desis to not misuse this new found acceptance.

Back to the topic, it appears that Pooja Gandhi was truly a high end cat burglar.

Police showed ABC7 News some of the stolen goods, which even included dog collars. Gandhi apparently had an eye for expensive apparel as well.
“Some of the items range from $4,000 raincoats to $1,400 dresses,” said Lalor.
She said the two stole about $8,000 of clothing from her boutique in the Marina. She identified some of them from police photos.

The loot recovered from her apartment was so vast that the local police are attributing most burglaries in the last six to eight months to the high-fashion desi cat burglar. MEOW!

Looks like you are one of our regular visitors. Here is our RSS feed, just another way to keep up with the new posts.