38-year-old man arrested for sickle murder of woman at Raigad lodge

Raigad police arrested 38-year-old Anis Mohammad Khan Maldar for the brutal murder of a 21-year-old woman found at Omkar Lodge on April 20.

MUMBAI: Six days after a 21-year-old woman’s naked body was found in a pool of blood at Omkar Lodge in Lonere along the Mumbai–Goa Highway on April 20, the Raigad police on Saturday arrested a 38-year-old suspect from Thane who allegedly killed her after establishing a physical relationship.

38-year-old man arrested for sickle murder of woman at Raigad lodge

According to the Raigad Police’s Local Crime Branch (LCB), the accused has been identified as Anis Mohammad Khan Maldar, a resident of Ratnagiri district. He was arrested from a dormitory in Thane where he had been hiding since the crime.

Police said Maldar allegedly brought the victim to room number 101 of the lodge, where he established physical relations with her. Initial investigations suggest that the victim, a Wadgaon resident in Mangaon taluka, was in a relationship with the accused, though the motive behind the crime remains under investigation.

The incident came to light on the afternoon of April 20, when the woman was found brutally murdered at the lodge in Lonere along the Mumbai–Goa Highway in Mangaon taluka. Police said she was found naked and had suffered grievous injuries after being attacked with a sickle on her head and wrists.

Investigators said the murder took place on April 19 at Omkar Lodge in Lonere, which falls under the jurisdiction of Goregaon police station in Raigad. Maldar allegedly struck the woman on the head and wrists with a sickle, killing her on the spot, before fleeing the lodge immediately after the crime.

A case was registered on April 21 under relevant sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023, along with provisions of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.

Police said the accused has a prior criminal record, including a murder case registered at Mumbra police station in Thane in 2021, which added urgency to the search operation.

Multiple teams of the Local Crime Branch and Goregaon police were formed, relying on technical surveillance and inputs from confidential informants to track the accused’s movements.

“During the investigation, we received specific inputs that the accused was moving within Thane city after committing the crime. Based on this, our teams conducted an extensive search of lodges, dormitories and areas around railway stations,” a police officer said.

After scanning several locations, police zeroed in on a dormitory where Maldar had been staying for the past few days and took him into custody. The accused was produced before a local court on Sunday, and further investigation is underway.

Police said they are continuing to probe the motive behind the murder and the sequence of events leading up to the killing.