A day after the body of a 45-year-old woman was found in Aarey Colony, the police on Tuesday arrested a security guard, who had been harassing her, at a godown she had been working at. Shardabai Khotkar, who worked as a labourer in a godown in Andheri (East), was last seen on Sunday when she left for home, the police said. Early on Monday morning, however, her body was found at a picnic park in Aarey. The police said that she had been killed after being struck on the head with a heavy object.
Khotkar’s identity was established after the Aarey police station discovered that a woman matching her description had been registered as missing at the MIDC police station the previous day by her son. Vinay Rathod, Deputy Commissioner of Police, zone XII, said Khotkar’s son told the police that a security guard employed at the godown had been repeatedly calling his mother’s cellphone and troubling her. “We got the details of the guard from the godown and arrested him. Initially, he told us that the deceased had died after falling down a staircase,” said Rathod.
However, when the guard, 25-year-old Satyendra Singh, could not explain how her body ended up in Aarey, he allegedly confessed to having killed her. The police added that Singh killed Khotkar soon after she left work on Sunday when she rebuffed his advances. He then called up some friends who helped him put Khotkar’s body in the boot of a car and dumped it in Aarey. The other three men are yet to be arrested, the police said. ENS
