Man who dumped wife's body at Malshej Ghat also took supari to kill corporator

Twenty-five-year-old Santosh Rajput, who was arrested by the city crime branch last week in an illegal arms possession case, at last, confessed to the police of having murdered his wife Divya, with his three friends on August 29, and later dumped her body in Malshej Ghat. A police sources said that one of Rajput’s accomplice has also been arrested by the crime branch.

Rajput also got a supari for a corporator in Ambernath. According to the police, on July 28, a few people had attacked corporator Shivaji Gaikwad, who also runs a footwear shop. A case under section 307 was registered with the police of Shivaji Nagar, Ambernath.

“During the interrogation, Rajput admitted of having committed the offence after he was given a supari to eliminate Gaikwad. He also said that his accomplice Sanjeev Patil, was instrumental in planning the attack. Based on the information provided by Rajput, we caught Patil on Monday night. Rajput also claimed that Patil was also one of the person involved in Divya’s murder,” said a crime branch source, adding that Rajput is in crime branch custody for an arms case while Patil has been handed over to the Shivaji Nagar police.

According to the police, on August 29, Rajput had taken Divya to Badlapur. The couple have a three-year-old child, who she left with her parents. Rajput was angry on Divya as she did not bail him out in a robbery case, few years ago. He also suspected that she was having an affair.

“Rajput convinced Divya to accompany him to Shirdi Temple, and his three friends joined them.

They allegedly killed Divya by slitting her throat and dumped her body in Malshej Ghat,” the officer said.