2 months on, man held for killing lover, setting her body on fire in Panvel forest

Navi Mumbai: After two months of meticulous probe into the murder case of an unidentified woman, whose completely burnt body was found in Rajmati forest area on the outskirts of Chinchavli and Wakdi villages along Panvel-Dundre village road in Panvel taluka, the local police, after identifying the murder victim by using technical expertise, have arrested an accused man, who had established a love relationship with her.

The victim was identified as Anitadevi Bhagwan Rajbhar (30), a resident of Phadkepada, Mumbra-Diva Road, Thane district, after her description matched with the missing person complaint lodged at Shil-Daighar Police Station, Thane district, where the complainant had mentioned her imitation jewellery that was found on the murder victim. The arrested accused was identified as Karan Namdev Patil (27), a brick supplier, residing at Phadkepada at Shilphata, Thane district. He confessed that he was in a love relationship with Rajbhar. As she was insisting on getting married, he was reluctant since she had three children from her estranged husband and he was unmarried and could not financially afford to take responsibility for her and her three children. He was arrested on Monday, June 8, and the Panvel court remanded him to police custody till June 12.

DCP (zone-3) Rashmi Nandedkar informed that, on April 11 around 5.30 pm, Chinchavli villager Mahadu Patil (56), who is the Police Patil (village-level administrator), was informed by his uncle Posha Patil from the same village that an unidentified person's burnt body was lying in the bushes in Rajmati forest area about 400 metres from his hamlet. The Police Patil then alerted Panvel taluka police, who confirmed that the body was of a woman due to her long hair and imitation jewellery worn by her. An FIR was registered against an unidentified accused for murder and causing disappearance of evidence of offence.

Gajanan Ghadge, senior inspector of Panvel taluka, said, "Multiple teams of five police officers and 10 constables of Panvel taluka police station were formed by zonal DCP Rashmi Nandedkar to detect the case. Since the woman's body was completely burnt, with no evidence to identify her, we sent the information of the imitation ornaments she was wearing on POLNET 2.0, a pan-India, satellite-based digital IP network used by police and other govt agencies, to obtain details of missing women for matching with the murder victim. A total of 920 missing complaints across Maharashtra and 197 missing complaints across MMR were scrutinised. Meanwhile, the police teams checked all the CCTV cameras in the surrounding villages, but no useful information was found. During the probe, Police Constable Sunil Kudale found that the finger ring, nose and ear imitation ornaments and a wrist thread on the murder victim matched with Anitadevi Bhagwan Rajbhar, whose missing complaint was lodged by her brother at Shil-Daighar police station on April 8. As the victim's body was completely charred, the complainant identified her as his sister from the imitation ornaments on the body."

Gajanan Ghadge, senior inspector of Panvel taluka, said, "After gathering technical evidence by probing for a month, it was found that victim Rajbhar was in constant contact with a suspect, Karan Patil, for several months and even a few days before her body was found. When he was called for inquiry, he did not appear at the police station, which raised suspicion on him as he had even switched off his mobile. Last week, he was apprehended by tracing him near his residence."

Ghadge said, "On April 6, the accused Patil took Rajbhar in his car from Thane and on the way, he fatally assaulted her on her head with an iron rod. He drove her body in his car along the Panvel-Dundre village road and upon reaching the isolated Rajmati forest area in Panvel taluka in the night hours, he dumped her body in the bushes and, removing petrol from his car, he poured it on her body and set her ablaze to destroy evidence."