On Wednesday, June 7, the Maharashtra police arrested a 56-year-old man for allegedly murdering his live-in partner and dismembering her body before disposing of it. The police revealed that the man chopped his partner’s body with a tree cutter and boiled her body parts in a pressure cooker. He later filled them into plastic bags to dispose of them. The victim has been identified as 32-year-old Saraswati Vaidya.
#WATCH | Maharashtra | 32-year-old woman killed by 56-year-old live-in partner | As per Police, the accused Manoj Sahni killed Saraswati Vaidya 3-4 days back and after that, he purchased a tree-cutter to chop her into pieces. Police say that the accused boiled pieces of her body… pic.twitter.com/ilFUfWVOLY
— ANI (@ANI) June 8, 2023
Police suspect that Manoj Sahani, the accused, committed the heinous murder on June 4 (Sunday).
“Police have found a body of a woman who had been cut into pieces, from a society in the Mira Road area. Here a couple was living in a live-in relationship. A preliminary investigation revealed that the woman was hacked to death. Further Investigation underway,” Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) of Mumbai Jayant Bajbale said.
Police are trying to find out the motive behind the murder. Police have taken two suspects into custody Manoj Sahani is also being interrogated.
According to the police, Manoj Sahani, who worked at a small ration shop in Boriwali, had lived with Saraswati Vaidya in flat 704 at the Geeta Akash Deep building in Geeta Nagar Phase 7 for the last three years. The police sprung to action after local residents called the Nayanagar police station around 7 pm on Wednesday and reported a foul smell emanating from the flat.
When the police reached the spot and opened the door of the flat located in the J wing of the Akashdeep building, they found Manoj Sahni sitting inside. He tried to flee upon seeing the cops but was nabbed with the help of the residents. When police entered the flat, they found over 12-13 pieces of the woman’s body at the site. The accused had reportedly disposed of some of the body parts over the past two to three days.
As per the police, a preliminary investigation revealed that the accused had first strangulated the victim to death. After that, he used electric cutters to chop the victim’s body into several pieces. The accused reportedly boiled the dismembered body parts of the victim and then filled them in plastic bags. Some media reports have quoted local residents as alleging that Sahni ground the boiled body parts and flushed them in the toilet. At the same time, some people claimed that after boiling, the pieces were fed to the dogs.
A report in TOI quoted residents as telling the police that Sahani was seen feeding stray dogs in the locality over the past two to three days, something that he had never done in the past.
News 18 quoted sources in the police as saying that when the officers entered the apartment, it was almost impossible for them to stand due to the strong stench. Many air fresheners were kept in the house.
“A tree cutter was kept in the hall and black plastic was spread all over the bed in the bedroom. The victim’s hair was lying in the bedroom. There were also three buckets kept in the kitchen, in which there were small pieces of the body and it was filled with blood,” a source said.
Police said that Sahani showed no sign of remorse. “We are in the process of registering an FIR against him for murder and destruction of evidence,” an officer said on Wednesday evening. A forensic team was called to collect samples and evidence from the apartment.
Police were told by block residents that the couple did not socialise with anyone. Their flat door had no nameplate and was registered in Sonam Builders’ name.
According to reports, Manoj Sahani met Saraswati, a resident of Ahmednagar, around 5 years ago at the ration shop he worked in. They moved in together in a rented apartment in Mumbai’s Mira Road, where the crime was committed. According to the authorities, the accused came up with the plot to murder his live-in partner after learning about the grisly murder of Shraddha Walker last year.
Shraddha Walker was killed by her live-in partner Aftab, who chopped her body into 35 pieces and kept them in a 300-litre fridge for almost three weeks at his house in Delhi before dumping them across the city over several days past midnight. The case came to light only six months later, when Walkar’s father filed a missing person complaint after failing to contact her for months. Aaftab Poonawala was arrested by the Delhi police and charged with murder and destruction of evidence.
