BENGALURU: James Ray, the gym instructor who was sentenced for life for the 2010 murder of Payal Surekha on Wednesday, had stabbed her 23 times. The crime sent shock waves through the city.

Ray, now 37, was arrested within days of the crime, but the case slogged through the investigation and trial processes for all these years because of multiple twists, including one where Payal’s parents viewed her husband as a suspect. After examining 62 witnesses and evidence presented by the CBI, 32nd additional city civil and session court (CBI court) judge K Shivarama convicted and sentenced Ray on Wednesday. Ray was also slapped with a penalty of Rs 1 lakh.

Payal grew up in the Assamese city of Bongaigaon. She later joined a college in Bengaluru, where she met Ananth. The two got married in 2008 and moved to Cuttack, where Ananth and his father, Narayan, ran ‘Cuts and Curves’ gym. Ray was an instructor here.

Ananth and his father found irregularities during a review of their firm’s books and found that Ray had been siphoning off money. He had also been illegally selling energy boosters and was accused of misbehaving with the gym’s female members. Some pictures were reportedly found on his phone. Payal advised Ananth and her father-in-law to remove Ray, saying he had no respect for the female clients.

Payal moved to Bengaluru again after she landed a job at Dell on November 15, 2010. A jobless Ray, in the meantime, shifted to Hyderabad to join a computer course. Investigators said his resentment at his sacking grew and he decided to avenge the humiliation. He got Payal and Ananth’s address through a common friend and turned up there when Ananth was out of town for work.

According to the chargesheet, Ray first had an argument with Payal, who ordered him to leave. On a call, she scolded Ananth for being lenient towards Ray.

Ray left, but returned on December 17, 2010, when Ananth was in Cuttack. Around 10.30am, he stabbed her 23 times, according to the chargesheet. The murder came to light around 2.30 pm.

Based on circumstantial evidence and witnesses’ accounts, inspector SK Umesh of JP Nagar police and his team arrested Ray from

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on December 22, 2010. Police seized his jerkin and spectacles which he wore at the time of the crime, along with rope and the knife he used to kill Payal. A chargesheet was later filed.

But Payal’s father, Deen Dayal Surekha, suspected Ananth’s involvement and filed a petition in the Karnataka high court. Later, he moved the Supreme Court, seeking a CBI probe. In 2015, the CBI filed a chargesheet reiterating the findings of JP Nagar police. Shivananda Perla argued for prosecution.

Sonia Narang, the then deputy police commissioner (south) and now the deputy inspector general of police with the NIA, praised the investigators and prosecutors.