Man commits suicide after killing elderly

After allegedly murdering a 60-year-old woman, her 22-year-old assailant, fearing arrest, committed suicide by jumping before a speeding local train about 10 days after the crime.

Maalti Mahadik, the senior citizen, was found murdered at her residence in Sai Baba Rahiwasi Sangh at Vakola pipeline in Santa Cruz (East) on September 17. Gold jewellery worth Rs64,000 was missing from her house. The youth, identified as Nilesh Khake, was Mahadik’s neighbour.

Mahadik’s daughter, Subhangi Ramashankar Gaud, who stays in the same area, said: “On September 17, Khake and his friend Avinash Sawant came to me and told me that my mother had suffered an electric shock and is lying unconscious at her home. But when police came and investigated, it was clear that she was murdered.”

Senior inspector Anil Kharade of the Vakola police station said, “On September 26, we came to know that Khake had gone missing. The next day we found an unidentified body on the railway tracks at Bandra. There was a mobile number written on the hand. For two days we called on the number but nobody answered.”

Senior inspector Ashok Suryagandh of Government Railway Police said, “On October 5, Khake’s brother returned our call. Then we told him about the body.”The story took another twist when Sawant approached the police and made revelation about the murder and robbery committed by Khake.

“Sawant said Khake had told him that he had murdered Mahadik and hidden the ornaments,” said Kharade. “We found several holes in his story. When we interrogated him, he broke down and confessed that he was also involved in the crime,” he said, adding that the police had recovered the stolen ornaments.

“We were in good relations with the Khake family. A day before my mother was murdered, they had invited her to dinner,” said Gaud.