Mumbai News: Days After Murder Of MPSC Topper, Police Arrest Friend

Days after the body of Darshana Pawar, one of the toppers in the Maharashtra Public Service Commission (MPSC) exam, was found at the base of a fort in Pune on June 18, the police arrested her friend from Andheri railway station in Mumbai.

She rejected his marriage proposal

Citing the preliminary investigation, Superintendent Ankit Goyal of the Pune rural police said the accused, Rahul Handore, 28, killed Pawar after she rejected his proposal for marriage. Handore, a resident of Pune, is a science graduate and was preparing for the UPSC exam. He and Pawar were childhood friends and he had helped her in MPSC exam preparations. A resident of Kopargaon in Ahmednagar district, Pawar had gone to Pune to attend a felicitation programme on June 9. Two days later, she went to her woman friend’s residence in the Nerhe area. Pawar left the next day saying she was going to the Sinhagad fort, the police had said earlier.

Police arrest accused from Andheri

On June 15, her father filed a missing complaint at the Sinhgad Road police station in Pune city, saying her phone was not reachable and he had no idea about her whereabouts.

The police learnt that Handore and Pawar were together before her disappearance. Her decomposed body, with several injuries, was found at the base of the Rajgad Fort on Sunday. A post-mortem revealed that she had been killed. Handore, however, had gone missing, which raised their suspicion, the official said, adding that Pawar was hit on her head with a blunt object like a stone. Police found that Handore had withdrawn Rs1,000 through his ATM card in Chandigarh, suggesting that he was on the run. He was tracked in Kolhapur, Kolkata, and Chandigarh and finally arrested at Andheri railway station.