MUMBAI: Fifty days after the disappearance of salon executive Kirti Vyas (28), a subordinate and a woman colleague were arrested on Saturday for allegedly murdering her. They are accused of strangling her in a moving SUV belonging to the woman, hiding the body in the boot the whole day before dumping it in a desolate spot at night, crime branch officials said.
Kirti’s body is yet to be found, but blood stains found in the car boot matched with the DNA of Kirti’s parents.
Accused Siddhesh Tamhankar (28) is an accounts executive and reported to manager Kirti at BBlunt Salon in Andheri. His arrested colleague Khushi Sahjwani (42) is the academic head of the firm. Siddhesh had thrice accompanied Kirti’s family to the police station to lodge a missing complaint and for subsequent probe. Khushi has also been active on social media expressing concern about Kirti.
Kirti had been untraceable since she left her house at Bharat Nagar in Grant Road around 8.50am on March 16. CCTV footage showed her getting into a car outside her house.
The police are exploring two angles: Kirti had put Siddhesh on a one-month notice for poor performance and future action was to be decided on March 16, the day she went missing. Another theory is that the suspects were worried that Kirti had details of their personal lives. The police have found that the suspects moved around in the city, including the salt pans in the Wadala-Mahul stretch, on March 16 night.
“It is too early to comment on this,” an officer said.
Narrating the incident, a police officer said on the day of Kirti’s disappearance, Kushi dressed in a jogging suit left her Santacruz home, picked up Siddhesh from Bhoiwada and headed to Grant Road. “They waited for Kirti outside her home, and picked her up around 8.50 am,’’ he added.
Their images were caught on the CCTV installed in Kirti’s building. During questioning, they had claimed to have dropped her outside Navjeevan Society near Mumbai Central station from where Kirti was to board a train to Andheri. But a CCTV camera captured the SUV, with all the three, travelling farther. The duo has been remanded in police custody till May 11.
The silver SUV belonging to Sahjwani was examined sometime ago by the police but they did not find anything. “The vehicle was then sent to the Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) at Kalina and the experts removed the floor mats and finally the black velvet mat in the boot. The FSL team found blood stains. “We called the victim’s parents and their blood samples were taken last month,’’ said an officer. The vehicle has been seized.
“We believe they killed Kirti when the SUV was on the move and pushed the body to the boot from the backseat,” said a police officer. Investigators have found that the car went to Dadar from Grant Road, then to Bandra, Santacruz and reached the Andheri office by 11am.
The police collected the mobile tower location of Siddhesh’s cellphone and found that he left his office around 6.30pm on March 16. “In between 8.50pm and 9.40pm, his mobile network showed he was at Wadala-Mahul. The body would have been kept in the boot of the SUV the entire day before they disposed of it,” said the official.
The duo has been booked for murder, disappearance of evidence, kidnap and common intention. “Crime branch officials called my parents and collected their blood samples. My mother is unaware about the fate my sister has met with. So far we are unclear what has happened to Kirti,” her elder sister Shefali (34) had told TOI on Friday.
Business was as usual at BBlunt academy in Andheri (W), where the victim used to work. Academy staff said there were only select persons in the academy on the second floor, because officially they were closed. Their office on the third floor was also closed on Saturday. A senior member at the academy said they knew about the case, but had no comment. “Whatever is there, it’s known to everyone. We don’t want to comment on it,” she said.
When TOI asked her if there had been any dispute between the victim and the accused in the past, she said, “Most of us in the academy are visiting today from other branches , so we are unaware about anything.”
Representative Photo