The Panvel Taluka police have arrested a man for allegedly helping his relative — a murder accused — hide from the police for around six months after committing the crime.
Deepak Tukaram Bhagat (28), a resident of Roha in Raigad district, was arrested on Friday after the police found that he was protecting and helping Kiran Namdev Patil (25) evade arrest.
Mr. Patil was arrested on March 8. “We learnt that Mr. Bhagat provided Mr. Patil a SIM card and a new house in Roha, and also regularly informed him of our moves. Mr. Bhagat was helping a person wanted for a serious offence like murder, and hence we arrested him,” senior police inspector Maloji Shinde from the Panvel Taluka police said.
Mr. Patil and Mr. Bhagat worked as painters, and even while in hiding, Mr. Patil was working in Roha.
Mr. Patil has been accused of murdering Kalyan resident Umesh Madhvi, whose decomposed body was found in a well at Wavanje-Kalyan road in Panvel on September 12, 2017. He allegedly killed Madhvi on September 8 at the behest of the victim’s wife, Trupti Madhvi, with whom he had an affair.
Madhvi, a resident of Usatne, was employed with a private company in Taloja. His body, which had severe head injuries and strangulation marks, was identified due to the missing person’s complaint registered by Ms. Madhvi on September 9. Ms. Madhvi was arrested after she revealed that she and her boyfriend from school — Mr. Patil — had killed her husband as they wanted to stay together.
On the night of the murder, Madhvi was asleep when Mr. Patil came to meet his wife. He heard them talk and woke up. Mr. Patil strangled him using a cloth, and then stuffed the body inside sack. He carried the sack on a two-wheeler and dumped it in the well in Panvel.
According to the police, the next day, Ms. Madhvi called up their relatives. She told them that her husband had fought with her the previous night after she found out that he had been getting unknown phone calls, and left the house with all her jewellery. She had then registered the missing person’s complaint.
Ms. Madhvi had also given her husband’s ATM card and PIN number to Mr. Patil, so that he could keep withdrawing money to show that her husband was alive and making transactions. However, the body was found after four days.
Ms. Madhvi is in Kalyan jail, while Mr. Bhagat and Mr. Patil have been remanded in judicial custody till Saturday and are in Taloja jail.
