The Nagpada police have solved a murder mystery of a 46-year-old man who was missing since the last week of August. The investigation revealed that the victim was in a homosexual relationship with one of the accused who killed him and buried his body in a jungle in Bhiwandi.
According to the police, the victim, Manish Madhav (name changed to protect his identity), a BMC employee and a resident of Nagpada, was in a homosexual relationship with Narendra Mane, a Western Railway employee. "Mane told the victim to break their relationship as his marriage has been fixed, however, the victim didn't agree to this and threatened to circulate their videos on social media if he breaks up," said police.
Shaken with the threat, Mane along with his friend Akash Nikam, an Income Tax Department employee, hatched a conspiracy to kill Madhav, said an officer from the police station. On August 26, the accused called the deceased to Bhiwandi and allegedly killed him in the wee hours with a knife; the duo then buried his body in the jungle and fled.
Meanwhile, when Madhav did not return home, his family approached Nagpada police and registered a missing complaint. During the investigation, police came to know that the deceased was with Mane before he went missing. Mane was later called for interrogation. During the sustained interrogation, he broke down and confessed to killing Madhav with the help of Nikam.
"Both were arrested on Saturday under the Indian Penal Code (IPC) section of murder (302), causing disappearance of evidence (201) and criminal conspiracy (120 B). The duo was produced before the court which remanded them in police custody till September 19," said police inspector Satish Kadam of Nagpada police station.
Police then exhumed Madhav’s body from Bhiwandi jungle and sent it for postmortem at the JJ hospital.
