Mumbai: Within 36 hours of finding a woman's body which was dumped in Kurla, the crime branch arrested the live-in partner of the deceased while he was planning to flee to his native in Odisha. Accused, Askar Manoj Barla, 22, allegedly strangled Pratima Paval Kispatta, 25, to death as he doubted her character.
Briefing about the case, Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) Raj Tilak Roshan said that the body of the 25-year-old woman was found in a bag near CST Road on Sunday. With the help of a locket in Kispatta's neck, the police succeeded in identifying her. Subsequently, eight teams, including crime branch units 5 and 11, were formed to probe the matter.
Accused killed the woman in a fit of rage
The investigation began with the police showing the woman's photo in the area around the spot where the body was found. The cops came to know that the victim was living in Dharavi for the last one month. After being arrested from Thane station, Barla revealed that there was a fight between him and Kispatta on Saturday night and that he killed her in a fit of rage, the DCP informed.
He packed the body in a bag and left the house with the intention of dumping it. The accused first went to Lokmanya Tilak Terminus, however, he dropped his plan owing to the presence of a huge crowd. He then took a rickshaw and came to Kurla West. Barla walked for a kilometer and reached a place where Metro-related works were underway, he silently kept the bag there and fled. He stayed at the Dharavi house and left for Thane to catch a train to Odisha the next night.
DCP Roshan said that Barla and Kispatta, who is also from Odisha, had met during lockdown when they were travelling to their natives on the same bus. They had started staying together for the last one month and Barla worked at a grocery shop while Kispatta was employed as a domestic help. Suspecting her character, the accused pressured her to leave the job and the woman did the same. However, again there was a quarrel between the two, with Barla doubting Kispatta's fidelity. The fight ended with her murder.
