Lessons in persuasion from a heinous crime

Sajjad Mughal’s overwhelming ambition: make love to Pallavi Purkayastha. He is a young (22), under-educated Kashmiri working as a watchman at Himalayan Heights, an upscale block of flats in Wadala, Mumbai. A graduate of the National Law School Pune, she (25) is a legal adviser. She has been staying with her partner Avik Sengupta in a flat on the sixteenth floor for a little under a year.

He tries to please her and befriend her, generously offering any special services that she might need. She spurns his repeated offers. Faced with such stony behaviour most men would give up the chase especially when the social distance between them is so great. Not Sajjad. He observes her routine and her live-in partner’s. He discovers that Avik often comes home well past midnight.

To achieve his objective, Sajjad must enter Pallavi’s flat when she's alone. He should not attract anyone's attention. That means he cannot force his way in. She must open the door and welcome him in. So he searches for some service that she asks him to render in the flat.

He figures out that if power goes off in her flat, she will seek someone's help. Once he senses an opportunity, Sajjad finds out from the electrician where the trip switches are and identifies the one that controls the power supply to Pallavi’s flat.

One night he switches off power supply to her flat. She telephones Avik, who is still at work. On his advice she asks the watchman on duty– Sajjad – to get an electrician. He does. A couple of hours later he switches off the power supply again. This time the electrician, accompanied by Sajjad, asks Pallavi to disconnect all heavy appliances to prevent any further tripping at night. Meanwhile Sajjad quietly steals the key to the main door and leaves the room with the electrician. He returns after 1 AM, opens the door to the flat, and enters, determined to rape her in the short window of opportunity available to him.

Pallavi is fast asleep; he tries to force himself upon her. She proves to be tough. She resists valiantly. Brustrated, Sajjad pulls out his knife and stabs her wildly before running away. She dies well before Avik’s return.

This is a horrible crime against an innocent woman. It deserves to be condemned by everyone without any reservations. Let us, however, glean a few lessons in persuasion from the unfortunate incident. Sajjad tried ingratiation first. A very powerful tactic, it failed in this case. Perhaps he appeared too eager, alarmingly eager, and that turned Pallvi off. But without giving up, he observed the target closely to identify her needs and chinks in her armour. Do we study our targets systematically when we plan our difficult persuasion acts?

Sajjad was in too much of a hurry; that took him quickly from the beautiful thought of seduction to the ugly plan of rape and ultimately to the horror of murder. That's another lesson in persuasion for us. Hurry kills.

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Acknowledgement: The account of the murder and the events leading up to it have been picked up from various newspapers, mainly The Times of India. Pallavi's photograph is taken from www.ndtv.com.