The Vishnu Nagar police have initiated investigations into the murder of a 56-year-old Thane resident whose body was found stuffed in a duffel bag in Dombivli on Thursday.
The bag was spotted by a resident of Baawan Chawl in Dombivli (West) around 9.30 a.m.. The bag was discarded at a garbage dump next to the Railway Ground, and the smell emanating from it made people suspicious. A police team opened the bag and found the body.
The body was taken to a hospital where the victim was declared dead before admission. The police obtained information about missing persons’ complaints and learned that a Thane resident named Umesh Patil had been reported missing to the Kopri police on Tuesday.
“We contacted Patil’s sons who identified the body as their father’s. They told us that he had left his residence on Tuesday morning and never returned, after which they lodged a complaint,” senior police inspector R.N. Munagekar, Vishnu Nagar police station, said.
Mr. Munagekar said an analysis of CCTV camera footage and inquiries at Thane and Dombivli railways stations established that Patil had boarded a Badlapur-bound train at Thane on Tuesday morning and got off at Dombivli. The police are now mapping his movements through cellular location mapping and other CCTV cameras around Dombivli railway station.
A stenographer by profession, Patil had retired from the Thane sessions court around five years ago and had been staying with his two sons in Thane since then.
“We have registered a case of murder and destruction of evidence under the Indian Penal Code against unknown persons and are awaiting a cause of death from doctors who conducted the autopsy. No clear external injuries were visible on the body and it had started to decompose by the time it was found. Based on the level of decomposition and the current cold temperature, the body is believed to have been dumped around 24 hours before it was found,” Mr. Munagekar said.