Thane: Duo held for killing, dumping woman’s body in Kalwa creek

MUMBAI: Two men were arrested on Wednesday, eight months after they killed a 30-year-old woman from Powai and dumped her body in Kalwa's Kharegaon creek on July 20, 2019. Deepali Yadav's (30) decomposed body was found around one-and-a-half km from Malvani shore, around 50km away, on August 7, 2019, and a murder case was registered by Malvani police.
As a missing case was unsolved, Powai police decided to call Yadav's former live-in partner, Nisar Shaikh (32), a labour contractor, and his accomplice, Lallan Tiwari (35), a cab driver, for questioning.
Powai police, who handed over the accused to Malvani police for a further probe, questioned Shaikh and Tiwari as Yadav's family knew about her relationship. Powai police cracked the missing case before their Malvani counterparts as they did not have a clue about the whereabouts of the body that reached Malvani last year. "Detection officer (sub-inspector) Vinod Lad used technical skills to solve the missing complaint. Shaikh killed Yadav as she repeatedly blackmailed him after he married. Yadav extracted money for partying. He strangled her in a moving vehicle and dumped her body in the creek," said DCP (zone X) Ankit Goyal.
Yadav's kin lodged a complaint a month later, thinking she would return as she used to occasionally go on picnics and return in a month. After the missing case was registered with Powai police, they checked Yadav's mobile network location, which showed UP, but failed to track it later. Earlier Shaikh and his associate were questioned four times. When a team led by senior inspector Sudhakar Kamble and Lad collected technical evidence and questioned Shaikh and Tiwari separately, there were discrepancies in their versions," said assistant commissioner of police (Sakinaka division) Milind Khetle.
"Shaikh was annoyed with the blackmailing, so on July 19, he partied with Yadav in Powai and then at a pub in Malad. While returning in a cab driven by Tiwari, Shaikh strangled Yadav at Aarey Colony early on July 20. Shaikh stuffed her body in a gunny bag and told Tiwari to dump it in the creek," said Lad.
Powai police tracked Yadav's details after Shaikh's confession. "We checked coastal belt police station records and found an unsolved murder case of a woman with Malvani police," police said.