Police, who were still searching for the motive behind the crime, said Pintu Sharma, the accused, had not been fully cooperating with them during interrogation. (Representational Image)The accused in the murder of Ganesh Kolhatkar, a Virar-based man whose body was chopped up and flushed down the toilet, was sent to judicial custody on Sunday. Police, who were still searching for the motive behind the crime, said Pintu Sharma, the accused, had not been fully cooperating with them during interrogation.
Police said Sharma, who was looking for a job, could not find one despite having some qualifications. “He had done some certificate course to take up a job in the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation, like his father. However, he never landed the job, and kept doing odd jobs like sales and insurance. His last job was as an insurance agent under Arvind Ranade, for whose kidnapping he had been arrested in 2018,” said police.
“He is very coherent when he tells us the details of what happened. And yet, he doesn’t share details of his life, except that he has a family, who don’t care for him,” said an officer from Virar police.
“He claims that he has given us the complete picture. However, there are loopholes in his story,” the officer said.
According to Sharma, Ganesh Kolhatkar was his friend who had borrowed money from him. Kolhatkar had repaid a part of the sum, police said. “He maintains that Kolhatkar had come to his house on January 16 for a casual meeting. When Sharma asked about his money, Kolhatkar said he wanted to get married and would need the money for some time, following which Sharma mocked him. An angry Kolhatkar allegedly slipped and knocked himself unconscious. Sharma, thinking he was dead, panicked and killed him with a hacksaw,” an officer said.
The officer added, “But why did he have a hacksaw in a recently rented house that his family knew nothing about and one which wasn’t occupied? Why did he assume that Kolhatkar was dead? He doesn’t respond to these questions, or gives different response each time.”
Born and brought up in Mumbai, Sharma had been living in a ground floor accommodation in Vakola with his wife and two sons for the past 15 years. “Despite having a house and not a big income, he had rented flats in Naigaon, Virar and other places in the past, for short durations. This, he said, he didn’t share with his family. This seems suspicious. We are trying to identify if he had other sources of income too,” an officer privy to investigation said.
On Sunday, he was granted judicial custody. “We had asked for his custody as our investigation is going on. But the honourable court sent him to jail,” said ACP Jayant Bajbale.
