British woman’s killer hangs himself in prison cell

PANAJI - A 30-year-old man, sentenced to life imprisonment last week for murdering a British woman in 2007, allegedly committed suicide by hanging himself in his prison cell with a medical bandage strip, officials said Thursday.

Anand Kambli was sentenced March 24 by a local court after being convicted of the murder of Denise Higgins, a 52-year-old domestic violence counsellor.

Inspector General of Prisons Mihir Vardhan told IANS that Kambli was found dead in his cell’s toilet Thursday morning. “We have ordered an enquiry into the death and a case of custodial death has also been registered,” he said.

“We found a long piece of bandage with him. It appears that he had kept it with him after being brought back from a recent medical examination. He hung himself at a time when there were 23 other inmates sleeping inside the cell,” Vardhan added.

Only last week, Ajay Kaushal, an NRI wanted in the Great Britain to stand trial in kidnapping and assault case, died in a judicial lockup where he was being held until the British police arrived to take him into custody.