Bengaluru, 26 Dec

A 39-year-old staff nurse of a hospital here has been allegedly murdered by her junior colleague, with whom she was in a relationship, police said on Friday.

The deceased, Mamatha, hailing from Hiriyur in Chitradurga district, had been working at Jayadeva Hospital, where she entered into a relationship with her junior colleague C Sudhakar, 25. As she started insisting on marrying, the man allegedly hacked her to death, police said.

The incident at the woman's rented house in Kumarswamy Layout came to light on Thursday after she did not respond to repeated calls from her family, who then alerted the landlord, police said.

"Mamatha and Sudhakar were in a relationship, but when she insisted on marriage, she came to know that he was already engaged. Despite this, she continued to press him to marry her. On the day of the incident, when he visited her house, they had a heated argument over the issue," a senior police officer said.

In a fit of rage, Sudhakar allegedly took a kitchen knife and slit her throat, the officer said. Before fleeing the spot, he also allegedly took away her gold chain to mislead investigators into suspecting a robbery angle, he added.

"A case of murder has been registered, and the accused has been arrested," the officer said.