A lawyer has been arrested in connection with the sensational killing of a 45-year-old nurse whose body was recovered from the staff quarters of a city hospital five days ago, police said Thursday.

 

 Vishvabandhu, 34, a resident of Sonipat in Haryana, was taken into custody as the constant conversations between his mobile number and the number of the victim, who also hailed from the same town, kept him on the list of suspects, police said. He has confessed to the crime.

 

 He told police that he had killed Nirmala, with whom he had a long relation, Sep 17 night at her residence in the staff quarters of Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Narayan Hospital after her repeated threats to spoil his marriage. 

 

 "Vishvabandhu had made a call to Nirmala Sep 17 afternoon and told her he would visit her place at night. In the night, he reached her apartment and killed her when she went to the washroom," said Additional Commissioner of Police Alok Kumar.

 

 Kumar said that the accused attacked the victim from behind and forced her head into a plastic tub filled with water till the time she died.

 

 "He put another plastic bucket filled with water over her to ensure that she is dead," said Kumar.

 

 Police said that Vishvabandhu was known to Nirmala for about seven years and used to visit her government quarter.

 

 "Vishvabandhu also stayed at the victim's residence occasionally in the night. Things were not going well between them since November 2013 when he got married," said the official.

 

 "Nirmala used to threaten Vishvabandhu of ruining his married life which led him to kill her," said the official.

 

 Nirmala's naked body was recovered from the bathroom of her second-floor residence Sep 20 night when her younger brother Anand reached her quarter along with his brother-in-law to inquire about her after he failed to reach her over the phone.

 

 Every Saturday, Nirmala would visit her mother in Sonipat. When she did not reach there and also failed to answer Anand's calls, he rushed to her residence here only to find her dead.

 

 She was working with the Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Narayan Hospital since 1994.

 

 Nirmala, who separated from her husband 10 years ago due to some family issues, lived alone in room number 108 of the hospital's staff quarters.