A 56-year-old man allegedly killed his 32-year-old live-in partner and later chopped her body into more than 20 pieces using two cutters in order to destroy evidence in Mumbai’s Mira Road area.
The Naya Nagar police have detained the accused and are interrogating him further. A preliminary inquiry indicates that he killed her over domestic disputes.
According to the police, the residents of J-wing in Geeta Aakashdeep Cooperative Housing Society, Geeta Nagar, Phase-7, on Wednesday called them complaining of a foul smell emanating from flat number 704.
Following this, a team from the Naya Nagar police station visited the building, broke open the flat and found the decomposed body of a woman in pieces lying in the flat. The deceased woman has been identified as Saraswati Vaidya, 32, an orphan.
A hunt for the accused was launched and he was soon nabbed from the colony.
A preliminary inquiry revealed that Vaidya had been living with Manoj Sahani in the flat since 2014. Sahani used to work at a ration shop.
Neighbours told the police that the couple would often fight.
“In the preliminary inquiry, it seems that the accused, in order to destroy the evidence, chopped the body in pieces. We nabbed the accused while he was trying to leave the building. We are further interrogating him,” said Jayant Bajbale, Deputy Commissioner of Police.
“The gruesome killing was committed on June 4, and the accused, using two cutters, including an electric one, chopped the body into small pieces. Some pieces of the body seem to be missing. We suspect that the accused may have dumped the body pieces gradually in different areas,” said Shrikant Pathak, Additional Commissioner of Police, Mira-Bhayander Vasai Virar police.
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The police have seized the cutters used in chopping the body.
“We are in the process of registering a case under sections 302 (murder) and 201 (destruction of evidence) of the Indian Penal Code,” DCP Bajbale said.
This is the second gruesome killing of women in the past fortnight in the area. Last week, a woman’s headless body was found near Uttan Beach.
The brutal murder also reminded the shocking killing of Palghar resident Shraddha Walkar, who was killed and later chopped into 35 pieces in Delhi last year by her live-in partner Aftab Poonawala.
