Four months after body found in gunny bag, two held for murder

While the arrests were made on Friday, the body was discovered in the first week of May, said police.(Image used for representational purpose)

Four months after a body was found by the police in a gunny bag in Thane, two men have been arrested for the alleged murder.

While the arrests were made on Friday, the body was discovered in the first week of May, said police. The deceased has been identified as Shegar Krishnan Pillai.

“The body was inside a gunny bag with its limbs tied and face burnt. The sack was discarded in a secluded area at Vartak Nagar,” a police officer from Crime Branch Unit V said.

The crime branch, which was investigating the case along with the local police, found a missing person complaint lodged in Bhandup whose description matched with that of the deceased. “The family, however couldn’t identify the body, owing to its condition. So, we did a DNA test, which helped us identify the deceased as Shegar Krishnan Pillai, a resident of Bhandup,” the officer said.

“Once the deceased was identified, we started investigating and eventually zeroed down on two suspects,” he added.
The two accused, Grijesh Singh and his employee Pramodkumar Gupta, had reportedly had a fallout with Pillai before he went missing. “Pillai was an auto-rickshaw driver but also used to work in the fabrication industry and thus had some expensive machines, one of which was given to Singh. However, Singh refused to pay for the machine, which led to a fight between the accused and deceased,” the officer said.

Pillai had gone to demand his money when Singh and Gupta allegedly strangled him to death, police said. “They stuffed his body in a gunny bag, tried to distort his face, and threw the bag in Thane where it was found,” a senior officer from crime branch said. “They have been booked for murder and remanded to police custody till September 21,” he added.