CCTV footage, DNA testing nail killers of salon manager

Almost two months after 28-year-old Kirti Vyas, a finance manager at the 'Bblunt' salon in Andheri, went missing, the Crime Branch has arrested her two colleagues one of whom was pulled by her in a memo for not unprofessional conduct.

The police cracked the case by sending blood samples found in the car of one of the accused for DNA testing. The two had picked up Vyas from her Worli residence in that car on March 16, the day she went missing, the cops said.

The accused, Siddhesh Tamhankar, 28, an account executive who had got the memo, and Khushi Sajwani, 42, an account manager at the Andheri salon and owner of the car.

On March 16, when Kirti did not return home, her parents called up the salon and were told that she had not come to work that day. Her father filed a complaint at DB Marg police station at Grant Road.

The police questioned the two suspects, they said they had picked her up in Sajwani's car from her home but she had got off the car near Navjivan Junction.

The police scanned CCTV footage from the area and learnt that Vyas never got out of the car. "We examined the car and found blood stains. The sample matched the DNA of Vyas' parents. It is likely that the accused dumped her body to destroy evidence," a crime branch officer said. "We are grilling the accused to recover the body and ascertain what weapon was used to kill her."

The accused have been booked for kidnapping and murder under sections of the Indian Penal Code.