Navi Mumbai real estate agent arrested for woman’s murder

Mumbai: Shivaji Nagar police have arrested a 60-year-old real estate agent from Navi Mumbai for murdering a woman.

The suspect, identified as Babu Bhagwan Patel, lives in Nerul.

On May 11, police officials had found the woman’s body in a decomposed state, packed in a gunny bag and stuffed inside a barrel at Natwar Parekh Compound in Shivaji Nagar. She was identified as Meena from Dadar, aged between 40 to 45 years.

According to the post mortem reports, Meena was killed four or five days before her body was dumped at Shivaji Nagar.

The police registered case of murder and formed six investigation teams.

While questioning locals in Shivaji Nagar, the police came across an intriguing statement: on May 11, one resident said he did not remember seeing the barrel in which Meena’s body was stuffed until 8:30am.

Police promptly checked CCTV footage to help them with more clues. While scanning through the video recordings, they spotted a van arriving at Natwar Parekh compound and the barrel being unloaded from it.

After tracking down the owner of the van, the police obtained their next lead — the drum was brought from an agricultural produce market committee (APMC) bazaar in Sanpada. The van owner also showed them the location where the drum was loaded.

Shahaji Umap, deputy commissioner of police, Zone 6, said that on further investigation, it was found the drum was brought from Karave village in Nerul by another van driver, who they tracked down.

Local informants pointed to the residence of real-estate dealer, Babu Bhagwan Patel who was arrested by the police.

Patel, in his statement to the police, claimed that Meena was a prostitute from Dadar who he met a week ago and brought her home. “His wife was present at his residence when he brought Meena over,” said Umap.

Hussain Jatkar, a police inspector who oversaw the investigation, said he had dispatched another team to Jalgaon to catch Patel’s wife as they suspect her involvement in the murder as well.