Mumbai: Nalasopara man, who strangled live-in partner to death and hid body in bed cabinet, was disowned by his father

A Vasai court on Wednesday remanded Hardik Shah, 27 – arrested for the alleged murder of his live-in partner in Nalasopara East – to police custody till Feb 21, said Senior Inspector to Shailendra Nagarkar from Tulinj police station. Son of a diamond merchant from Malad, Shah was disowned after he blew up Rs40 lakh.

Shah had allegedly strangled his partner Medha Torvi, 35, a nurse from Kerala, to death and hid her body in the storage cabinet of the bed in their rented flat in Sita Building, Tulinj Road. After allegedly murdering the woman on Sunday, Shah locked the flat and fled. When a foul smell started emanating from the flat, the neighbours summoned the police, who broke open the door and found the body in the bed’s cabinet.

Shah and Torvi were apparently in a live-in relationship for the past six months. Torvi worked as a private nurse on the basis of assignments given to her by a nurses’ bureau.

The police scanned CCTV cameras in the building and its vicinity and also tracked Shah’s mobile. They found that he had boarded a train from Mumbai Central and was headed towards Nagda junction on the border of Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh.