KALYAN: Manpada police on Friday cracked the murder case of 33-year-old Dombivli housewife Supriya Shinde whose body was found inside a sofa-cum-bed in her flat on Tuesday night, with the arrest of a neighbour, Vishal Ghavat (25), a friend of both the victim and her husband Kishore.
A neighbour told the police she had noticed a pair of slippers outside the victim's flat on the day of the murder that fit the desription of Vishal's. Based on this information, police detained Vishal, who then reportedly confessed to the crime.
Police said Vishal had pretended to help Kishore look for Supriya and even accompanied him to the police station to file a missing person report.
Police said as Supriya was fond of reading, Vishal went to her residence when she was alone on the pretext of lending her a book and allegedly tried to sexually assault her. When she fought back, Vishal allegedly smashed her head against the floor and then strangled her with a nylon rope.
Police said Vishal is a resident of a building adjacent to the victim's in the Davdi area of Dombivli. He had studied till Class 12 and is currently employed as a supervisor in a private company.
He had visited the victim a day before the crime too, saying he wanted to lend her a book. Jayram More, assistant commissioner of police, Dombivli division, said, "On Monday, while visiting her on the pretext of lending her a book, he learnt what time her son leaves for school. The next day he visited her when he was certain she would be home alone, again with the excuse of lending her a book, and tried to sexually assault her."
More further said, "When the deceased protested and tried to raise an alarm, the accused smashed her head against the floor and used a nylon rope to strangle her. Later, he hid her body inside the sofa-cum-bed, cleaned the floor of her blood stains and left."
Police said when Kishore began to look for her with his other neighbours and relatives, Vishal joined the search and even accompanied Kishore to the police station to file a missing person complaint. While they were at the police station, the neighbourhood women and relatives who had gathered at the victim's flat noticed that the sofa seat cushion was a little raised and askew. They lifted it to find Supriya's body in it. On discovering the body, they immediately called Kishore.
Police said Vishal, who was with Kishore at the police station when he took the call, looked visibly frightened and left for his home.
Shekhar Bagade, senior inspector of Manpada police station, said, "There is no CCTV camera in the building but since Vishal had visited the deceased on two days and and he wore the same slippers on both and took them off outside the flat, a neighbourhood woman described the footwear to us. This helped us crack the case."
Police have seized the slippers, the nylon rope and the cloth used by the accused to clean blood at home as evidence against the accused.
