MUMBAI: A day after a 47-year-old woman was found murdered in a lodge at Madh in Malad, her absconding paramour was arrested early on Wednesday. The motive is not clear but police suspect she was strangled to death after a fight on Monday night.
The victim, Amalmary Charlie, and Amit Bhuvad, 36, knew each other for nearly a decade and were in an extra-marital relationship, said the Malwani police.
On Monday evening, they checked into a lodge on Madh Marve Road. The police recovered liquor bottles from their room as well as shards of a smashed bottle, leading to the theory that they had been drinking and got into a fight.
Around 9am on Tuesday, Bhuvad left and did not return. The staff at the lodge did not suspect anything amiss till Charlie wouldn't check out. When finally they opened the door using a duplicate key at 3.30pm, Charlie's body was found and the police were informed.
"There were marks on Charlie's neck. Later, forensic doctors confirmed she had been strangled to death," said a police officer. Bhuvad was the prime suspect but his cellphone was not functioning, making it tough to track down his location. Around 2.30am on Wednesday, officers traced him to Kandivli where he had taken up a new job.
Charlie, employed as a guard, was a widow and lived with her three children at Goregaon's Bhagat Singh Nagar. Bhuvad lived with his wife and son at Kandivli's Dahanukarwadi and worked as a housekeeping staffer. The police have learnt that Bhuvad's family had got wind of the affair, a possible motive for the murder.
Bhuvad was booked for murder and produced before a magistrate court on Wednesday, which remanded him to police custody.
