Ashwini Bidre case: ‘Body disposed of in gunny bags, chat messages point to abuse’

In the chargesheet, the police have stated that Kurundkar was allegedly irritated with the constant nagging by Bidre. (above)

The Navi Mumbai Crime Branch spent over Rs 20 lakh and two months trying to find ‘iron boxes’ allegedly carrying the ‘dismembered’ body parts of policewoman Ashwini Bidre, who has been missing since 2016, but the supplementary chargesheet filed by the investigators in the sessions court in Panvel on Saturday states that her body was disposed of in gunny bags. With no DNA match, the police’s case hinges on circumstantial evidence.

The 1,000-page chargesheet details circumstantial and technical evidence against the main accused, police inspector Abhay Kurundkar.

In the chargesheet, the police have stated that Kurundkar was allegedly irritated with the constant nagging by Bidre. “She had demanded that he leave his wife, provide Rs 50 lakh each for her daughter and her, and transfer the property in his hometown on her name,” the chargesheet states. “We have enough evidence from their WhatsApp chats and the hard drive retrieved from her house in Kalamboli to prove this,” an official said.

The WhatsApp chats, the chargesheet stated, also reveal that Kurundkar was subjecting her to physical abuse and that he was not ready to marry her. According to the chargesheet, in one of her messages to Kurundkar, she said, “I have lost my daughter because of you. But what do you care? Nothing will make you marry me.”

The chargesheet also gives an account of the steps Kurundkar allegedly took to to cover his tracks after ‘eliminating’ Bidre. A maid who used to work at Kurundkar’s Bhayander house told the police, “I had a spare key to the house that was given to my husband as I was out of the city. I was told by sir’s (Kurundkar’s) driver to ask my husband to give him the keys. My husband told me that they were going to paint the house and have asked us to not come to the house.” She added: “When I finally joined in May 2016, the house was freshly painted and squeaky clean. However, there was a pair of female footwear that I had not seen before and have never seen after that one day.”

Kurundkar’s former assistant is among the over 80 witnesses whose statements were recorded. “He had asked me to buy a heavy iron weapon in the first week of March (2016). When I bought it, he asked me to keep it in his car’s boot space,” he said in his statement. Police suspect the ‘heavy iron weapon’ was used to allegedly kill her and then hack her body with it. While the weapon was sent to a relative’s house in his hometown, it wasn’t recovered, the chargesheet stated.

The chargesheet also places importance on the statement of one of the co-accused, Mahesh Phalnikar, who not only refused to be a witness but also retracted his statement before a magistrate.

“The first time I heard of Ashwini Bidre was when I had been handed her salary slip by my childhood friend Kurundkar asking for a loan. However, I told him that the amount he was looking was not possible with the given salary slip,” Phalnikar said in his statement. His statement also entails how the only time he met Bidre, she had a fight with Kurundkar. “I asked him why he was listening so much from her. I advised him to leave her (sic),” he said in his statement. While his statement does not mention if he saw Kurundkar chop the body, it does mention how they had thrown the torso wrapped in a gunny bag into the Vasai creek. However, according to the police, not all of his statement checks out.

“Phalnikar said he lived in a nearby hotel on the night of April 12, 2016. However, the hotel manager and the records prove otherwise,” the chargesheet states.

The chargesheet also talks about the disposal of the body. Kurundkar’s driver, Kundan Bhandari had bought five pieces of 5 kg iron weights, which were used to weigh the body parts thrown in gunny bags, the chargesheet reads.

According to defence lawyer Vishal Bhanushali, however, the case still lies heavily on the GPS locations. “We will move for the bail of all the accused,” he said.

“We haven’t yet given up looking for the body. Some agencies have shown interest in using different technologies, and we are talking to them. Without the body, the evidence is circumstantial, so finding the body is important,” said a senior officer involved with the case.

“The case is not progressing. The police are not even trying. We are soon going to hold a press conference regarding the failure of the state,” said Raju Gore, Bidre’s husband.