Washington, Aug 11:
A 20-year-old Indian student accused of murdering his girlfriend in the US was arrested in Germany before he could board a connecting flight to his home country.Varun Batchigari, a business analytics student at the University of Arizona, allegedly murdered his 19-year-old girlfriend Julissa Rubi Salazar on August 6 at her apartment in Tucson city.
According to the Tucson Police Department (TPD), Batchigari travelled to the Tucson International Airport, where he boarded a flight to Germany with plans to continue to India. Detectives obtained an arrest warrant charging Batchigari with first degree murder and kidnapping.
“Through close coordination between TPD, the FBI Tucson Office, and the FBI Legal Attache Office in Berlin, Batchigari was taken into custody upon his arrival in Germany, preventing him from continuing his travel,” Tucson Police said in a statement. Investigators allege that Batchigari stole Salazar’s cellphone and credit cards after the killing and sent a series of text messages to her mother while posing as the victim in an apparent attempt to conceal the crime.