Grocery shopowner held, staffer booked for woman’s murder

PUNE: The Warje police on Friday night arrested a grocery shopowner and booked his employee for allegedly abducting a 19-year-old woman of Shivane and killing her on the foothill of Waghjai hill in Visnagar village on Paud-Lonavla Road in Mulshi on March 15.
Senior inspector Bajirao Mole of the Warje police told TOI on Saturday, “We have arrested Vipul Bhavarlal Shah (32) of Manikbaug on Sinhagad Road for killing Prerna Shashikant Kamble (19) of Shivane on NDA Road. Shah is married and has two kids.”

Police said Kamble was in a relationship with Shah. “For the last few days, Kamble started demanding money from Shah and also threatened of telling his wife about their affair if he failed to meet her demands. Fed up with the blackmailing, Shah hatched a plot to eliminate Kamble,” police said.

Shah, along with his employee, kidnapped Kamble on March 15 and throttled her before pouring petrol over her body and setting her on fire on the foothill of Waghjai hill in Visagar village. Police recovered the burned body from the spot on Friday, following which a case of murder was registered and was referred to the Paud police for further investigations.

Senior inspector Mole said Kamble’s parents had lodged a missing person’s complaint with the Warje police on the evening of March 15. “Soon after recovering the body, we started investigating and studied Kamble’s cellphone records. The CCTV footage from the area was also scanned,” he said.

“The CCTV footage showed Kamble boarding a red car. We took the registration number of the vehicle and found it to be belonging to Shah,” the officer said, adding when Shah was questioned, he told police that he invited Kamble for a picnic to Lonavla. “She joined them around 2.30pm on March 15,” Mole said.

Shah’s employee, who hails from Paud, was also sitting in the car. “The suspects drove to Paud and then towards Lonavla. After spotting an isolated spot, the suspects took her out of the car and throttled her with the help of a rope. Shah then poured petrol on her body and set her ablaze,” the officer said.

Mole said Kamble was working at an LPG cylinder agency in Warje. The Shah-owned grocery shop is located adjacent to the gas agency.