Narpoli police on Wednesday arrested a 33-year-old man for the murder of Prasad Tiwari, 37, whose body was found in a gunny bag near Kalher creek in Bhiwandi, on March 9.

According to Narpoli police, the accused Dinesh Saroj, a tempo driver, has been booked under section 302 (punishment for murder) and section 201 (causing disappearance of evidence) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). Police are questioning his friend Sunil Yadav, who is a suspect in the case.

The deceased Tiwari had been working for Deepak Sanghvi, who deals in the plastic business, for the past 15 years. As part of his job, Tiwari used to collect cash from manufacturers and return to his office in Mulund (West).

On March 6, Tiwari headed out to collect money from manufacturers and by evening had collected Rs 12.66 lakh, including the last payment of Rs 60,000 from Rakesh Gunjal, whose office is at Ramgopal Industrial Estate, Mulund.

“Before returning to his office, Tiwari called Saroj, who was consuming alcohol at his home in Mulund, with a friend. Saroj asked Tiwari to come home as they were known to each other. According to Saroj’s statement, Tiwari too consumed alcohol,” said Maloji Shinde, senior inspector, Narpoli police station.

“He was aware that Tiwari was carrying cash in his bag. Saroj, along with his friend, strangled Tiwari and killed him. They put his body in a gunny bag and used Saroj’s tempo to dump the body near Kalher creek,” said Shinde. They abandoned the tempo in the Bhiwandi area and fled with the bag of ₹12.66 lakh.

Tiwari was last seen on the CCTV footage of March 6, around 9.30 pm while leaving Ramgopal Industrial Estate, said a police officer.

The incident came to light on March 9, when a local spotted the body near Kalher creek. Nearby police stations were alerted and his body was identified on March 11 after which his family was informed.

“After checking call data records, we found that Tiwari had last called Saroj, who had fled to his native place in Varanasi and was arrested while he was returning to Mumbai,” a police officer said.

First Published: Mar 14, 2019 04:32 IST