Naigaon murder: Accused claims his ex-girlfriend blackmailed him for marriage, house

A man in India has been arrested for allegedly killing his ex-girlfriend and disposing of her body. He claims she had been blackmailing him and threatening suicide if he didn't marry her and buy her a house. The man, along with his wife, allegedly submerged the woman's head in a bucket of water after a fight and then dumped her body. The couple has been charged with murder and destruction of evidence.

The 34-year-old man, who was arrested on Tuesday for allegedly killing his former girlfriend and disposing of her body in Guajrat with the help of his wife, has claimed that she had been blackmailing him and threatening to die by suicide if he did not marry her and buy her a house.

Naigaon murder: Accused claims his ex-girlfriend blackmailed him for marriage, house

Manohar Ravishankar Shukla, who works as a costume fittings man on film sets, told the police that minutes before her death on August 9, Naina Ramchandra Mahat had called him and threatened to consume poison. He then reached her flat at Sunteck City in Naigaon East following which a fight erupted between the two.

Mahat, Shukla claimed, showed him two bottles of phenyl and rat poison and said if he did not give her a house and marry her, she would consume the poison after writing a suicide note blaming him for her death, a police officer from Naigaon police station said. “In a fit of rage, Shukla said, he retaliated by saying that if she wanted to die, he would help her, and then he grabbed her by her hair and submerged her head in a bucket of water several times.”

According to the police, Poornima was not present at the spot when Shukla killed Mahat. “We have found two sealed bottles of phenyl and rat poison on the 14th floor apartment at Sunteck City where Mahat stayed alone,” the police officer said.

Mahat, 29, who worked as a hair stylist in Bollywood, was from Nepal and she had come to Mumbai along with her brother and sister in 2016. She met Shukla on a film set that year. The two had an affair until 2019 when Shukla married Poornima.

After a missing complaint was filed by Mahat’s sister Jaya on August 14, the police first thought that the victim had been missing since August 12. “We checked the CCTV recordings from August 12. However, after we got the call detail record (CDR) of Mahat, we found that her phone had been switched off since August 9. We then went back to the building and scanned the CCTV footage from August 9 and found that Shukla and Poornima were captured on cameras entering and exiting the building,” the police officer said.

Meanwhile, the Naigaon police learnt that the Pardi police had found a decomposed body on August 18 and had registered an accidental death report. “When we questioned Shukla before we received the CDR of Mahat, he claimed that she had gone for a shoot, but he did not know where,” the officer said.

Investigation revealed that Shukla had initially hid his marriage from Mahat. When he broke the news to Mahat in 2019, she demanded that he leave Poornima and marry her. “The couple tried to reason with Mahat by taking her to Tungareshwar on his bike but on the way, a fight broke out between the three. The couple tried to leave without Mahat, but her purse got stuck in the bike and she was dragged for over 50 metres. The couple left her there and Mahat filed a complaint against the two,” the police officer said, adding a case under section 323 (punishment for voluntarily causing hurt) of Indian Penal Code (IPC) was registered against Shukla at Virar police station.

Later that year, she approached the Waliv police and based on her complaint, Shukla was booked under section 376 (punishment for sexual assault). Since 2019, the couple had been pressuring Mahat to withdraw her police complaints. Shukla also told the police that Mahat had been calling him continuously for the last four years and demanding that he marry her, the police officer added.

The Naigaon police on Wednesday took a blood sample of Jaya to match the DNA of the body and establish her identity.

The couple was arrested on Tuesday and the Vasai court sent them in police custody till September 16. The duo has been charged with section 302 (murder) and 201 (destruction of evidence) of IPC.