More than two months after a 28-year-old woman went missing from Mankhurd, the police on Friday arrested three people in connection with her murder and also recovered her body, which was buried in Raigad.

According to the Mankhurd police, the deceased, Rohini Ghorpade, left her Mankhurd residence on November 14 last year telling her family that she was going to attend a wedding. When she didn’t return home the next day, her brother Rajendra Mohite reported her missing to the police.

“Ghorpade, a widow with a nine-year-old son, worked as a sweeper at the municipal hospital in Vashi. We found out that she was having an affair with her colleague Sunil Shirke (44), who also held the same position at the hospital,” Deputy Commissioner of Police (Zone VI) Shahaji Umap said.

Bank withdrawals

Meanwhile, the police’s examination of the transactions done from Ghorpade’s bank account revealed two withdrawals made from her account using her debit card on November 15 and 16, which was immediately after she went missing.

The police then visited both the Automated Teller Machine (ATM) centres located in Vashi and Koparkhairane and obtained CCTV camera footage of both the kiosks, which showed a man withdrawing money from Ghorpade’s account.

The police, while obtaining details about the people frequently in touch with Mr. Shirke, identified one of his friends, Ram Jadhav, as the man who had made the withdrawals. Further inquiries revealed that he worked as a driver for a cable operator and had gone on leave from work just before Ghorpade went missing.

The police also found out that it was at Mr. Jadhav’s behest that Mr. Shirke had gotten Ghorpade a job at the Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation Hospital, Vashi, which established a common link between all three.

How it happened

“Based on our findings, we picked up Mr. Shirke and Mr. Jadhav for inquiries and after sustained questioning, they confessed to having murdered Ghorpade on November 14. The two men and the victim had left in Mr. Shirke’s car, which was driven by their friend Vijaysingh More, a driver with the Brihanmumbai Electricity and Transport, for Mangaon in Raigad. At a pre-decided spot, they stopped and Mr. Jadhav hit Ghorpade on the head with a spade, after which Mr. Shirke strangled her to death with her saree. Her body was buried in a pit, which had been dug by Mr. Shirke two days before the murder,” Mr. Umap said.

Body recovered

All the three accused were placed under arrest on Wednesday following the confession, and the police also recovered Ghorpade’s body from the spot specified by the accused.

The police said that Ghorpade had wanted Mr. Shirke to marry her, which the latter was unwilling to do as he was already married and had two children. Further, his family had found out about the affair, which had created tension in the family, the police said.