A 23-year-old man who runs a bakery at Prem Nagar in Goregaon (W) has been held for the murder of an 18-year-old girl from the neighbourhood. Her body washed up on Versova beach on Thursday.
Police said the two were in a relationship and Mohd Ansari strangled Sonam Shukla—set to appear for NEET in two months—after an argument at his home, stuffed the body in a sack and dumped it in a creek. She was not sexually assaulted.During interrogation, Ansari, who is pursuing his graduation alongside running a bakery, confessed to killing Shukla at his home in Prem Nagar when his parents and siblings were not there. “Ansari and Shukla had a fight at his home and in the spur of the moment, he strangled her with a cable wire. Later, he tied her hands and legs and stuffed her body in a gunny bag which he kept in the front footrest part of his scooter, and rode near a creek in Malad (W) where the body was dumped. They had an affair. The team through local information learned about Ansari and knew Shukla; this led us to him and during questioning he broke down and confessed to the crime,” said a police officer.
Police found Shukla’s decomposed body after it washed ashore at Versova beach on Thursday evening. Looking at the seriousness of the case, DCP (Zone IX) Manjunath Singe supervised the team of Versova senior inspector Siraj Inamdar, inspector Kaustubh Mitbavkar, and detection staff, which gathered information from its counterpart about the victim’s parents who had lodged a missing complaint on April 25. The team learned that the victim and the accused were known to each other and were having an affair after the victim befriended Ansari after he visited his shop to buy bakery items.
On April 25, the victim went to tuition class at 4 pm and later went to her friend’s home in the neighbourhood near her residence in Goregaon (W). The teenager, who was preparing for her medicine entrance after passing her junior college, went missing on Tuesday after she left her Goregaon home. “She did not reach the class when the police team inquired. Later, it was learned that she had visited her friend’s (girl) home in the neighborhood and had left at around 9 pm. Her mobile was switched off after 11 pm. Her parents registered the missing complaint when they failed to locate her,” said a Versova police officer.
When the victim did not return home till 9.30 pm her father called her and inquired about her. “My daughter told me that she will reach home in some time as she is at her friend’s home. But when she did not reach till 11.30 pm, I got worried and again tried her number. This time, her mobile was switched off. I learned that my daughter was killed when the police sent a photo of a decomposed body of a girl but it was not in a position to identify her. So, we were asked to reach Cooper hospital where we identified her. Police said her body was stuffed in a sack and was washed ashore near Versova. The girl went missing on April 25,” the victim’s father told TOI.
The father said: “My daughter was aiming to become a doctor. My child’s bright future has been cut short. We celebrated her 18th birthday in February and she was supposed to appear for NEET in two months. She used to put in at least 7 to 8 hours daily preparing for the entrance. Those involved in the killing should be given harsh punishment.”
“The Goregaon police just took a missing complaint instead of registering a case of abduction and reacted late. The girl’s parents were harassed at the police station by the cops,” said activist Saroj Gupta.
Surjitt Sahani
