The North Mahalunge MIDC police on Saturday arrested a 36-year-old man from Karanjvihire village in Khed taluka on the charge of throttling his 80-year-old distant relative to death and robbing her of gold jewellery worth Rs 25,000.
Details of the Incident
The murder took place around 8 pm on May 2, near the woman's house at Karanjvihire. The accused, identified as Kailas Margaj, stuffed the victim Sindhubai Margaj's body into a plastic gunny bag and threw it into the Bham river. Senior police inspector Digambar Suryavanshi of the North Mahalunge MIDC police stated that the accused was arrested based on a tip-off from a jeweller. Margaj had sold the stolen jewellery to the jeweller.
When the victim's grandson visited the jeweller to inquire about the missing woman and her jewellery, the jeweller became suspicious and alerted the police. He also informed them that Margaj had come to his shop on May 3 and sold the jewellery, claiming he had found it somewhere.
Investigation and Arrest
The woman's grandson had lodged a missing person complaint on May 5. The police team was searching for her when they received the alert from the jeweller. They recovered the stolen jewellery and took Margaj into custody. Police sub-inspector Sachin Mahadik revealed that Margaj is a daily wage worker. On the night of May 2, he first throttled the woman to death and then removed her jewellery. He then placed the body in a plastic gunny bag and threw it into the river from a bridge on the road between Dhamane and Karanjvihire.
The highly decomposed body was recovered on May 7, about 300 metres away from the spot where it was thrown. The accused has been remanded to police custody until May 12.
