The accused, Yakub Khan, 19, his wife, Poonam Bharadwaj, 20, and Khan’s friend Shakir Qureshi, 25, have been arrested. (Representational) Officials from the Crime Branch unit 8 arrested three persons, including a woman, for allegedly murdering a pavement dweller, suspecting him to be a thief, and throwing his body under a bridge on Western Express Highway in Santacruz (east).
The incident took place on October 4 and an FIR was registered on Friday.
The deceased, Ganesh Golatkar, lived on a footpath in Kalanagar, Bandra (east). The accused, Yakub Khan, 19, his wife, Poonam Bharadwaj, 20, and Khan’s friend Shakir Qureshi, 25, have been arrested. All three accused are homeless and live in the same locality on the road.
On the night of October 3, Bharadwaj’s mobile phone and cash went missing. She suspected Golatkar to be behind the crime and confronted him. Golatkar abused her, after which she complained to her husband.
Early on October 4, the trio returned and assaulted Golatkar. They put him in a rickshaw, strangled him, threw him down and fled from the spot.
Aa post mortem was conducted and an accidental death report was registered at Vakola police station. “We were running a parallel probe and identified the victim. We then learnt that he was attacked that night and since then he was missing. We investigated further and arrested the accused,” said Deepak Sawant, inspector of unit 8.
Golatkar has two theft cases against him and Khan has two burglary cases against him.
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