Driver who shot dead 55-yr-old woman in car at Ulwe arrested

The city crime branch on Thursday arrested a 42-year-old driver, Ashok Kumar Konar, for the murder of a 55-year-old woman who was shot inside her car on Monday.

The city crime branch on Thursday arrested a 42-year-old driver, Ashok Kumar Konar, for the murder of a 55-year-old woman who was shot inside her car on Monday.

HT Image

The accused is a resident of sector 9 in Ulwe and has previous cases of theft against
him. The accused was in a car outside the Bank of Maharashtra in Ulwe when the victim Prabhavati Bhagat, 55, had arrived there with her 63-year-old husband Balkrishna in their Swift car around 2 pm on Monday.

The accused killed her after robbing her of her gold mangalsutra and earrings, said police.

Balkrishna went to the bank while Bhagat waited in the car. Konar then approached her saying that their car was obstructing the parking spot.

“Noticing Bhagat was alone, he asked her to move the vehicle in the pretext of parking his car. He then, immediately, offered to help and entered the vehicle on the pretext of parking their car to a different spot. He then drove off with her to an isolated spot at the under-construction site,” said an officer.

Konar stole the woman’s gold earrings and mangalsutra before shooting her in the chest with a country-made pistol, said police.

The police had, till now, ruled out robbery and claimed the murder may be an act of revenge or a personal tiff.

“Based on the information, we nabbed the accused from Vikas Bhavan Chowk in Kharghar. We also recovered a country-made pistol with two magazines and a live cartridge from his possession,” said Pravin Patil, deputy commissioner of police, crime.

The car he was driving was also stolen from Vashi, and a case of theft has previously been registered. Konar had changed the vehicle’s registration number plate and had been driving it around without getting
caught.

Konar was produced before the Panvel court and remanded in police custody till March 9.