Mumbai chawl stabbing: Unsafe to recreate crime scene with accused, say cops

Mumbai: In the chawl stabbing case, cops from the DB Marg police station have dropped the idea of taking the 54-year-old accused, Chetan Gala, to his residence for reconstruction of the crime scene.

On March 27, The FPJ had reported that the police intended to re-enact minute-by-minute sequence of the attack, which claimed lives of three people and injured three others, on Monday. The reason behind the police's change of mind is that the cops suspect that Gala, in a fit of rage, may try to harm himself or others if taken back to the crime scene.

Fresh findings in the case

Meanwhile, fresh findings have surfaced in the probe, which suggest that the accused doubted that Prakash Waghmare – who worked as a domestic help for him as well as several of his neighbours – was behind his wife. A police official said that as Waghmare used to do household work for everyone, chawl residents, including Gala's wife, conversed with him at length, which strengthened his suspicion.

That's the reason, he also attacked Waghmare besides neighbours during his stabbing spree.

Accused was jobless for past 12 years

The accused wasn't earning for the past 12 years and used to apparently quarrel with his wife for petty reasons. Irked, she started to live separately along with her children.

Terming the crime as “heinous”, Dilip Sawant, Additional Commissioner of Police, south Mumbai, told that they are collecting more evidence so that the accused gets severe punishment. “We are collecting all the scientific evidence and also taking the help of the Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) to link the culprit with the crime. The blood samples found at the scene and the knife recovered from the accused will be sent to the lab soon.”

On Friday, Gala assaulted five people with a knife; three succumbed to their injuries and two others are undergoing treatment.

Published on: Monday, March 27, 2023, 09:40 PM IST