Cops solve mystery behind body found in dump in Mulund East

The Mumbai crime branch on Thursday solved the murder mystery behind an unidentified woman's dead body being found at a dumping ground in Mulund East on September 14. A crime branch unit arrested the husband of the deceased in connection with the murder of his wife, who hailed from Dharavi, on August 18.

The only bit of information that the crime branch of Mumbai police had was about the truck which had offloaded the garbage at the dumping yard along with which the body. It would collect garbage from the G North ward of Mumbai. "We had only the dead body's picture and information that the truck collected garbage from the areas of Dharavi, Shahu Nagar and Mahim. Through an informer, we started finding out if any woman had gone missing from those areas in the last few days," said Vyankat Patil, senior police inspector, crime branch.

Patil further added: "We did not find any missing record in any police station in those areas but assistant police inspector Anil Dhole got information through his informer that a woman named Rakhadevi Sanjay Gautam from Rajiv Gandhi Nagar had been missing from September 14. Her husband Sanjay Gautam had told people that his wife had gone allegedly missing when they had gone to Jeevdani temple in Virar."

Officers checked with the Shahu Nagar police station for a missing complaint about Rakhadevi and were surprised that her husband had not registered one. "On Thursday, we arrested Rakhadevi's husband Sanjay Gautam in connection of murdering his wife. Initially, he was evasive but later, he confessed to killing his wife as he doubted her of having an affair with another man."

According to the police, Gautam had a fight with his wife on September 14 and in a fit of rage killed her by giving her poison. He later wrapped her body in a bedsheet and then packed it in a plastic bag and quietly put it in a garbage bin outside the ONGC office in Dharavi. Gautam also told the police that he and his wife had come to Mumbai just one-and-a-half month back from Uttar Pradesh. He also confessed that the story of his wife going missing when they went to Jeevdani temple in Virar on September 14 was not correct.