Kundan Namdeo Bhandari (51), the driver of police inspector Abhay Kurundkar arrested in connection with the disappearance of assistant police inspector Ashwini Bidre, has told the police that Mr. Kurundkar owned a wood-cutting machine, which is now missing.
Crime Branch officers suspect that the machine was used in the alleged crime. Mr. Bhandari told the police that a week after Ms. Bidre went missing, Mr. Kurundkar, the prime suspect in the case, had told Mr. Bhandari to paint his house.
“We have not yet found the machine that Mr. Bhandari has told us about. Once we find it, a forensic analysis can reveal if it was used to cut human flesh,” a Crime Branch officer said.
Mr. Bhandari, who is in police custody till February 27, is being interrogated at NRI police station. The Kandivali resident was arrested on Tuesday after Crime Branch officers thought that he was concealing important information about the case.
Ms. Bidre, a Kalamboli resident who was posted with the Protection of Civil Rights Unit at Konkan Bhavan, went missing on April 11, 2016. A missing person’s case was registered on July 14, 2016.
On the day she went missing, Mr. Kurundkar and his co-accused Dyandev Dattatrey Patil alias Rajesh, nephew of former minister Eknath Khadse, were at the same location in Bhayander. Mr. Bhandari told the police he was in a hotel in Mira Road that day.
The police believe that all three were together at Mr. Kurundkar’s house.
On January 31, 2017, the police registered a case of kidnapping in connection with Ms. Bidre’s disappearance. Mr. Kurundkar, who was posted at the Security Branch, Thane Rural Police, allegedly had an extramarital affair with Ms. Bidre, and the relationship is suspected to have become abusive as per footage procured from Ms. Bidre’s laptop.
