Police Sub-Inspector Mushtaq Shaikh from the Mira Road police stations said, “The residents of the Rashmi Hetal Housing Society, where Paloma lived, described Aquinas as a person with short temper. We have also gathered that after quitting his call centre job five to six months back, Aquinas had started stealing petrol from the cars of the society residents. He had even been caught by the residents on a few occasions but the matter was not reported to the police as they did not want to involve police in the matter.”

A society resident, on conditions of anonymity, said, “He had stolen petrol from my car too on a couple of occasions. But most of the residents hesitated to get into an argument with him due to his short temper. Also, he has an impressive physique, which again made the others wary of him.” Aquinas has been booked for murder.

According to one of Paloma’s neighbours, she had complained to Aquinas’ father about her suspicions and he had helped her in getting the debit card blocked for further use.

Aquinas lost his temper after Paloma accused him of stealing it. In a fit of rage, he assaulted her with a small kitchen knife on early Wednesday morning when she came back from her shift and was being escorted to her flat by two security guards, Shailendra Singh and Mohan Yadav. In an attempt to save her from Aquinas, Singh also got injured when Aquinas bit him on his index finger. Yadav said, “Aquinas was very big and strong and we both were not a match for him at all. Though we tried our best to save Paloma from Aquinas, we could not do so.”

Paloma succumbed to her injuries on her way to the hospital, where she was taken by the society residents who came down after hearing her cries and the sounds of struggle. As per the police, Paloma’s parents, who live in Goa, had come down to Mumbai on Wednesday evening to claim her body and take it back to Goa for the funeral.