Jogeshwari murder: Placement agency did not conduct verification of ‘criminal’ caretaker

The police registered a case against the staffing agency under section 188 of IPC (disobedience to order duly promulgated by a public servant) for not updating his profile nor conducting a background check on Gawli since 2020. The police said Gawli was arrested by Shirol police in January 2022 for vehicle theft

Mumbai: The 29-year-old caretaker who was arrested for the murder of his senior citizen employer and seriously injuring his wife in Jogeshwari East on Monday, had a criminal history, according to police. The man, identified as Pappu Jalinder Gawli, who was recruited as the caretaker for the elderly couple in 2023 by a staffing and payroll services agency - Disha Placements- was not verified after 2020.

Jogeshwari murder: Placement agency did not conduct verification of ‘criminal’ caretaker

The police registered a case against the staffing agency under section 188 of IPC (disobedience to order duly promulgated by a public servant) for not updating his profile nor conducting a background check on Gawli since 2020. The police said Gawli was arrested by Shirol police in January 2022 for vehicle theft.

He has now been remanded to police custody till February 17 on Wednesday, after he was presented before the court. “During the recruitment process, the placement agency sent the caretaker’s profile from 2020 to the elderly couple in 2023, without even bothering to check or update his credentials and check his criminal records,” said Rajendra Mandhare, senior police inspector of Meghwadi police station.

Gawli, who was working for Sudhir Chiplunkar (70), a retired state electricity board employee, allegedly stabbed him with a knife in his throat and stomach. The elderly man died before he was admitted at Jogeshwari’s Trauma Care Centre while his wife Supriya (69) is recuperating at Nanavati Hospital.

Chiplunkar’s daughter Sucheta on Wednesday arrived with her husband from Hillingdon in the UK. “Her brother Siddharth will arrive in Mumbai from Texas in the US on Thursday to perform the final rites,” added Mandhare.

The Meghwadi police on Wednesday told the Andheri magistrate that they had retrieved the bloodied vest of Gawli and were searching for his blood-stained shirt and the murder weapon which he used to stab Chiplunkar. The chairman of the Shri Samarth society in Majas Wadi, Jogeshwari East identified as Tejas Bhatt told the police that he was in the house on the third floor when a building member, Sudhakar Gawas, rushed to his house and asked to accompany him to flat 207 as something serious had happened. “We visited the flat and found the victim’s wife in a semi-conscious state on the floor and there was blood in the room. Sudhir was found in the bedroom in a pool of blood. His wife was unable to talk. She asked for a pen and paper. Gawli, who was the caretaker, was missing and his role was found when the victim’s wife scribbled his name and the placement agency owner’s name on the paper,” said Bhatt in his statement to the police.

The watchman of the building Shashikant Kedekar told the police that they had seen the accused fleeing from the building premises on Monday night. “On Monday night I noticed blood stains all over his shirt. On asking he said that his employer suffered an injury after falling from bed and that he was rushing to bring a doctor,” Kedekar said in his statement to the police.

“Action will be taken against Disha placement agency for not updating the antecedents of Gawli,” said Maheshwar Reddy, deputy commissioner of police (Zone 10).