The police on Thursday arrested 28-year-old Ambuj Tiwari for allegedly murdering his wife Neelam and disposing of her body in Lonavala. (Representational)
A MISSING persons complaint filed by the father of a 28-year-old man, who had gone missing along with his 22-year-old wife, ended up in a murder case.
The police on Thursday arrested 28-year-old Ambuj Tiwari for allegedly murdering his wife Neelam and disposing of her body in Lonavala.
Police also arrested his friend, Srikant Choube (24), for allegedly helping him dispose of the body. Police said Tiwari’s father Mahendra approached the police on July 23, stating that both his son Ambuj, who worked at Kurla as a quality supervisor in a cement mixing firm, and his daughter-in-law Neelam, a home-maker, were missing from their residence since a day. The couple have a four-year-old son, who was with his grandparents. ACP Vinayak Vast said they began looking for the duo and eventually found Tiwari in Ghansoli area on Tuesday.
During interrogation when he was asked about Neelam, he did not give a proper answer, Vast said. He was then further interrogated, where he confessed to have murdered his wife and dumped her body in Lonavala, said police. The police team reached the spot where Tiwari claimed to have dumped the body in a blue drum and recovered it. “Neelam’s decomposed body was found in the drum,” Vast said.
The police then registered a case of murder and arrested Tiwari. He told the police that he suspected Neelam was having an affair, something that led to regular fights between them. The duo got married in 2016 and in the last two years they fought frequently. On July 23, he told his wife that they should go to stay at his friend’s house in Navi Mumbai, which was empty and resolve their differences, police said.
“However, early in the morning they had a fight again and he strangled her with a dupatta,” Vast said. When Choube, at whose house the murder took place, came home, Tiwari told him about the incident. The duo then put her body in a drum and took it in a tempo owned by Choube. On the Mumbai-Pune Highway, they pushed the drum in the bushes near Lonavala. After returning, Tiwari was staying at a friend’s place from where he was arrested.