Woman’s murder probe solves daughter’s death

An ex-military personnel, who was acquitted of a murder case last year, was again arrested on Thursday in the double murder case. The accused has been identified as Mayuresh Ajeet Gambhir, 43

Navi Mumbai: While investigating the murder of a 54-year-old woman, the police unearthed that the victim’s daughter was also murdered 11 months ago and the killer was the same person in both incidents.

Woman’s murder probe solves daughter’s death

An ex-military personnel, who was acquitted of a murder case last year, was again arrested on Thursday in the double murder case. The accused has been identified as Mayuresh Ajeet Gambhir, 43.

On July 10, an unidentified body of a lady was found on Pirkon-Sardegaon Road at Uran. According to the police, along with the red saree-clad body of the woman, there was a pouch of her spectacles found near the body.

“While the accused had made sure to dump her body without any belongings so that she could not be identified, this pouch paved the way for us to identify the lady,” senior police inspector Satish Nikam, Uran police station, said. Later, the woman was traced to Dombivli and was identified as Bharti Ambokar.

According to the police, her neighbour informed them that Ambokar’s son-in-law from Poynad called her on July 9 to meet her daughter Priti.

“While finding more information about the accused, we found that he was a history sheeter and was previously externed from Alibaug and Poynad. We got information that he was present at Palava. We zeroed in on Gambhir and arrested him as well as his accomplice Dilip Ashok Gunjalekar, 41,” deputy commissioner of police, Zone II, Pankaj Dahane, said.

During the interrogation, the accused revealed that two others, Deepak alias Babu Bajrang Nishad, 38, and Abrar Anwar Shaikh, 34, were also involved. They were later nabbed from Poynad.

According to the police, on July 9, the four accused had picked up Ambokar in a four-wheeler from Thane and after reaching Sai village, the accused shot the lady. According to the police, before throwing her body, Gambhir slit her throat as well to make sure that she had died.

“It was while investigating the motive behind this murder, another murder which happened 11 months back, came to light. Gambhir killed his second wife, Priti, last year in August. Since Ambokar was not able to speak to her daughter, she had been pestering Gambhir to tell her where her daughter was. Gambhir kept giving her unsatisfactory replies citing that they were out of the station on a tour. Gambhir was afraid that his mother-in-law might soon get suspicious and do something against him and hence decided to kill Ambokar,” Nikam said.

In August 2022, Gambhir took Priti to a beachside resort for a holiday and strangled her, Nikam said, adding, “He dumped her body into Dharamtar creek in Raigad. We are yet to find the body of Priti and the weapon used to kill her mother.”