Published Aug 28, 2026 | 3:46 PM ⚊ Updated Aug 28, 2026 | 3:46 PM
Police suspect Nikitha Godishala was murdered on New Year's Eve, 2025.
Synopsis: Arjun Sharma allegedly fled the US after stabbing Nikitha to death in his flat. Before fleeing, he had lodged a person-missing complaint with the Howard County police in the US. Hyderabad police traced him to a flat in Agra, Uttar Pradesh, and central agencies took him into custody. Nikitha’s father said a financial dispute led to the murder.
Nearly eight months after a techie from Telangana, Nikitha Godishala, was found murdered in the United States, the prime accused in the case, Arjun Sharma, 26, has finally been traced to a flat in Agra, Uttar Pradesh, and taken into custody.
Officers from Hyderabad’s Lalaguda police station, who were separately probing a cheating complaint filed by Nikitha’s family over money Sharma allegedly owed her, zeroed in on his Agra address on 24 August.
A non-bailable warrant is already pending against him in the US murder case. Central agencies stepped in based on a tip-off from Hyderabad police and arrested him. He was produced before the Patiala House Court in New Delhi, which remanded him to custody on 25 August.
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Nikitha, 27, a data and strategy analyst who lived in Ellicott City, Maryland, for nearly four years, had gone missing on the night of 31 December 2025.
Sharma filed the missing person report on 2 January, only for investigators to discover he had already flown out to India that same day.
Although police described him as her ex-boyfriend, her family insisted that he was only a former roommate.
Nikitha’s body was found at Sharma’s Columbia apartment with multiple stab wounds. Howard County Police suspect that she was killed on New Year’s Eve and charged Sharma with first- and second-degree murder.
Proceedings to hand Sharma over to the US authorities under the India-US Extradition Treaty are now underway.
Nikitha’s father, Anand Godishala, maintained the killing followed a dispute over money Sharma owed the family. He repeatedly appealed to Indian authorities to expedite both the extradition and the return of his daughter’s mortal remains.
