When Sheeba Ajaykrishnan, the President of the Thalikulam panchayat, called Sunita Sneha, a dog shelter owner in Thrissur, about a stray dog issue in the region a few days ago, the call did not go through. “It said something in Kannada,” she recalls. The next thing she heard was that Sunita had been brutally assaulted at her workplace in Bengaluru.

Sunita died on Tuesday evening while undergoing treatment for her injuries. She was allegedly attacked by Deepak Krishnan, a Malayali who ran a dog shelter in Sulibele, Bengaluru, after she told him that she wanted to return to Kerala. According to the FIR registered by the Thrissur East Police, the accused also allegedly made sexual advances towards her, which she turned down. It was also suspected that this may have provoked him.

Sunita, along with her husband Sinto, ran a dog shelter at their home in Pathamkallu near Vadanappally, housing about 160 dogs. She was known in the region for caring for dogs and intervening when stray dog issues arose. “That's why I called her when an issue arose, but I could not talk to her then. Now I hear that this is what happened to her,” Sheeba recalls.

“She had submitted a proposal at the Panchayat for taking care of the Animal Birth Control (ABC) program in the region. It was scheduled to be discussed in a meeting this week,” says Sheeba, unsure how to proceed with the programme without her.

According to her husband, Sinto, the couple had known the accused for some time, as he would often assist the shelter financially when they struggled to provide food for the dogs. “We knew him to be a dog-lover, so we never expected that it would turn out this way,” he told Onmanorama.

The couple came across the job opening, which paid ₹40,000 per month, through a friend and did not think twice, as they were already familiar with Deepak. “It was after all of this that I found out that the man had criminal cases against him,” Sinto said.

Sunita first left for Bengaluru with her niece, Aleena, on April 17. However, they returned on April 24 as they needed one more person to assist them. “Even during this time, the man behaved respectfully, and she had not suspected anything,” Sinto told Onmanorama.

Later, Sunita and Aleena left for Bengaluru again on April 28, after hiring one more staff member, Chinnu. “From the day after they arrived, Deepak began verbally abusing them, prompting Chinnu and Aleena to return to Kerala,” he said. According to Sinto, it was when Sunita went to convey this decision to Deepak that he abused her. He added that Deepak also made sexual advances and attacked Sunita when she declined.

According to the FIR, Deepak allegedly attacked her by repeatedly smashing her head against a wall and an almirah, and stamping on her chest. Police said he also threatened the other women present with a knife when they tried to intervene.

Sunita’s husband, Sinto, said that one of the women who witnessed the incident informed him over the phone, following which a complaint was lodged with Vadanappally Police. The case came to light after Vadanappally Police contacted Bengaluru Police.

According to the Thrissur East Police, which had registered a case based on a complaint filed by Sinto, the women were locked up by Deepak after he attacked Sunita. “The police arrived after receiving the complaint and shifted Sunita to the hospital,” the police told Onmanorama. They added that Sunita had to be shifted between hospitals several times, as her condition was critical and there were no ventilators available. Later, she was brought back to Thrissur in an ambulance and admitted to the Jubilee Mission Hospital, where she continued on the ventilator support. However, she succumbed to her injuries while undergoing treatment there.

The police said the case had been transferred to the Sulibele police station as the crime occurred within its jurisdiction. Sulibele police, Bengaluru rural, which is probing the case said that Deepak is absconding and a search is underway.