Pala: A college girl was brutally murdered on the campus of St Thomas College here in Kottayam district.

The victim has been identified as Nithina Mol, a resident of Thalayolaparambu in Vaikom.

The assailant reportedly slashed the neck of the 22-year-old student.

The chilling incident occurred as the girl completed her examination. 

The murderer, Abhishek, a resident of Vallichira, was her classmate. He has been taken into custody soon after the crime.

Abhishek, 22, murdered the girl as she reportedly spurned his romantic overtures.

He had left the hall midway when the supplementary exam was progressing, a batchmate revealed.

Abhishek subsequently waited for Nithina to return and used a paper-cutter to slash her neck. The heavily bleeding Nithina was rushed to the Marian Hospital, but she succumbed soon.

"Both were seen quarrelling," a security guard who was witness stated.

The murderer was unperturbed after the crime, other witnesses said.

Similar crimes of late

In August, a 24-year-old dental student was brutally gunned down by a spurned lover in Kothamangalam. P V Manasa, who was a house surgeon at the Indira Gandhi Dental College in the Nellikuzhi area of Kothamangalam on the eastern fringes of Kerala's Ernakulam district, was shot at a close range by a youth, Rakhil P.Raghothaman, before he killed himself.

Earlier, the state witnessed such a shocking crime way back in 2019 when a youth called out a 17-year-old girl from her house at Athani in Kakkanad area of Ernakulam district at midnight, poured kerosene on her body and set her aflame. Minutes later, he set himself aflame and was burnt to death along with her.

Here the assailant was Mithun, 26, hailing from Cheriya Pallamthuruth in North Parur. His victim was Devika alias Paru, a plus-two student of Ernakulam Government HSS.