‘I wish him nothing but suffering’: Nikitha Godishala’s friend knew murder accused Arjun Sharma but didn’t think he was capable of this crime
Indian woman Nikitha Godhishala was found dead in an apartment in Columbia on January 3 after a person believed to be her boyfriend, Arjun Sharmafiled a missing person report and told the police that he last saw her on December 31. Hours after filing the complaint, Sharma took a flight to India. When Nikitha’s body was found, Sharma emerged as the prime suspect as Nikitha’s body was found in Sharma’s flat. Eight months later, Sharma was arrested in India and will now be extradited to the US.Reacting to the arrest, Nikitha’s friend Jillian Thornton said she knew Sharma and but they could never imagine that he was capable of such crime.“Devastating doesn’t even begin to describe the shock, the betrayal, you know, it’s been really hard to come to terms with,” Thornton said. “I wish him nothing but suffering because, God, she just was so good. She was just good in the purest sense of the word, and she was good to him.”According to the friends, Nikitha and Sharma’s relationship was complicated and Sharma had “a mean sense of humor” towards Godishala. “Sometimes it felt like he took it too far,” Thornton recalled.Nikitha’s family dismissed the claim that Sharma was Nikitha’s boyfriend and said that he was a roommate who lost his job and then borrowed money from Nikitha. They said the motive for the crime was financial. WMAR-2 News reported that the claim was not substantiated by local police. The family also said that they found out through media reports that the body was inside a suitcase.“We now respectfully ask the U.S. authorities for transparency, cooperation and answers. We are not asking for special treatment. We are asking for what every parent deserves when their child is killed — the truth,” the family shared in a statement.“They’ve been navigating two governments, two justice systems. They made this happen. It’s not fair that they had to do this,” Thornton said, crediting the family for the arrest.In India, a cheating case was registered against Sharma in April, months after Nikitha’s murder, alleging that Sharma cheated Nikitha after taking money from her. The police team from Hyderabad, a city in the south, was sent to Agra, a city in the north after they received information that Sharma was staying there. Since a case was already registered against him in the US and a non-bailable warrant was pending, the central authroities were informed and he was taken into custody.
