Mumbai: Missing bank executive’s car found with blood stains

MUMBAI: The abandoned car of Malabar Hill resident Siddharth Sanghavi (39), a bank executive who has been missing since Wednesday night, was found outside a residential building in Koparkhairane in Navi Mumbai on Thursday evening. There were blood stains on its rear seat.

Police will send the dried blood sample for analysis. Investigating teams from the local police and crime branch are checking CCTV footage and Sanghavi’s call records.

Sanghavi, an asset and liability management senior analyst with a leading private bank, arrived at his office at Kamala Mills in Parel on Wednesday morning as usual. He was seen exiting the parking lot at around 7.55pm, but he did not reach home.

Sanghavi lives in a joint family with his wife, son, parents and grandparents in Malabar Hill, opposite the state guest house, Sahyadri.

When bank employee Siddharth Sanghavi's family tried his phone around 8.30pm on Wednesday, it kept ringing, but no one answered. An hour later, his phone was found switched off. On Thursday morning, the family approached the N M Joshi Marg police and lodged a missing person complaint.

By evening, his blue Maruti Ignis had been found parked outside the compound of Shanti Heights in Koparkhairane. "We found blood stains on the rear seat. There is no damage inside the vehicle," a senior police officer told TOI. "There are no CCTV cameras in the area where the car was found abandoned," he added.

Friends and family kept trickling into their house on Ridge Road even as Siddharth's wife Charvi remained quietly hopeful of her husband's return when TOI visited the family on Friday evening. "We don't want to talk about anything until we know for sure what is happening. The police are being very cooperative and we're hoping that they will find Siddharth soon," said Harsh, Sanghavi's younger brother who lives in the US and is visiting.

Several police teams and those from crime branch (unit-III) are working on the case. "The family has not received any ransom call," said an officer. "We are checking CCTV footage at all junctions and roads leading to Koparkhairane." The police suspect another person was in the car. "We need to figure out who that person was," added the officer. Sanghavi's phone call records are being scrutinized.

Sanghavi's neighbours said they realised something was amiss when police began visiting the family since the night of September 5. "Siddharth has a six-year-old son. Their father deals in the stock market and his mother is a housewife. Siddharth's paternal grandmother is very distressed by his disappearance," said a resident.

The family has reportedly lived in Ridge Apartments, a nine-storey building, for 50 years, and is known to get along with neighbours. "There was no visible conflict. Siddharth would leave for work at Kamala Mills around 9am and return on time every evening. His wife works in the same locality," said a neighbour.

"They're a non-controversial family, and god-fearing people who have never had any skirmish with anyone in the building. Siddharth too was always a quiet, shy boy who is not known to even raise his voice since he was a child. We don't know why he would suddenly go missing," said another resident.

(With inputs from Bella Jaisinghani)