Gorai murder: Bihar man was lured to meeting, killed over interfaith affair

The victim’s father indicated that the interfaith relationship was linked to his son’s murder as he said the girl’s family had threatened to kill him earlier

Mumbai: The 21-year-old Bihar resident whose dismembered body was found in Gorai on Sunday was murdered over an interfaith relationship, arrested accused Mohammed Sattar, 24, has told the police. Raghunandan Paswan, the deceased, was in a relationship with his sister which his eldest brother did not approve of, Sattar told the police, detailing how he lured Paswan to Bhayander on the pretext of arranging a meeting with his sister and killed him. The victim’s father Jitendra Paswan too indicated that the interfaith relationship was linked to his son’s murder as he said the girl’s family had threatened to kill him earlier. Both Raghunandan Paswan and the girl are from Bihar’s Darbhanga district and they first met while Raghunandan was working at a hospital in Pune, his father told HT.

The 21-year-old Bihar resident whose dismembered body was found in Gorai on Sunday was murdered over an interfaith relationship. (File)

“When the girl’s family found out about their friendship, her eldest brother (Muktar) had threatened to kill him. I had then spoken to the mukhiya (village head), who had promised us that he would be safe,” Jitendra Paswan said on Thursday while waiting at Bhagwati hospital to claim the remains of his only son.

Raghunandan quit the job at the hospital in Pune subsequently and took up a job at a private firm in Mumbai, said his father. The girl, meanwhile, began living in Borivli with her eldest brother, Muktar, who confiscated her phone, Sattar, a fish vendor and hooch supplier, told the police.

According to the police, on October 31, when Raghunandan Paswan called Sattar seeking details of the latter’s sister, the fish vendor claimed she was living with him in Bhayandaer and said he would allow the two to meet despite his eldest brother’s objection. Raghunandan then travelled from Andheri to Bhayander and met Sattar, who took him to a bar and made him drink heavily till he started vomiting and lost consciousness. Sattar then slit his throat, chopped his body into pieces, wrapped the parts in plastic and stuffed them into four paint buckets.

“Sattar, who used to supply hooch from Bhayander to Gorai, used to hide the alcohol bottles in bushes, so customers could pick them up. On October 31, he called an autorickshaw driver and told him that he needed to deliver hooch at the spot where he eventually disposed off the four paint buckets,” said an officer attached to Gorai police station.

On Tuesday, the deceased’s parents, who live in Bihar, approached the Andheri police station, claiming their son had been missing since October 31. They subsequently identified the dismembered body as their son’s based on the tattoo on his arm.

The same day, after a photo of the four paint buckets began circulating widely on WhatsApp groups of police informers, the auto driver approached the Bhayander police. He had dropped off Sattar at Gorai on October 31 with the same buckets, he told the police, based on which the accused was nabbed on Wednesday.

On Thursday, Sattar was produced before the Borivali court and remanded in police custody for five days. The police are now trying to find out if he had any accomplices and if the auto driver was aware that he was carrying a dismembered dead body in the buckets.