Nalasopara murder: Killer spent two hours outside police station after committing crime

According to the police, he spent around two hours in the vicinity of the police station, but could not muster the courage to confess and eventually, fled the city

Mumbai: Twenty-seven-year-old Hardik Shah had gone to Tulinj police station to report that he had killed his live-in partner and dumped her body in the cavity of the bed in their rented room in Nalasopara. According to the police, he spent around two hours in the vicinity of the police station, but could not muster the courage to confess and eventually, fled the city.

Nalasopara murder: Killer spent two hours outside police station after committing crime

Shah was arrested from Rajasthan and brought to Mumbai on Wednesday. He was produced before a local court in Vasai, which remanded him to police custody till February 21.

“Shah is spotted in the footage from the CCTV cameras, installed in the Tulinj police station compound, for nearly two hours after he committed the crime. But he did not enter the police station and later took a train to Rajasthan,” said a senior police officer, requesting anonymity.

“We questioned Shah about his presence outside the police station and he said that he was not in a proper state of mind to decide what he should do. He wanted to confess the crime but at the same time, he was also thinking about how he should dispose the body of his live-in partner, Megha Torvi,” added the officer.

“If Shah wanted to confess, he should have walked in and told us about the crime,” said Shailendra Nagarkar, senior police inspector of Tulinj police station. Shah told police that he could not muster the courage to walk in and report the crime that he had committed.

Shah and Megha, a nurse by profession, were in a live-in relationship and had rented a room in Sita Sadan in Nalasopara for the last two months. Shah allegedly smothered Megha to death after a quarrell between them. Shah then dumped her body in the cavity of the bed and fled the spot after selling some other furniture in the local market for cash.

The murder came to light after residents of the building reported a foul smell emanating from the apartment and called local police officials, who broke open the door of the room and found the woman’s body.

According to police, Megha - a native of Kerala used to work as a nurse and had met Shah, a son of a diamond merchant. Shah used to splurge money on her and had spent close to ₹40 lakh from his father’s bank account.

After his father came to know about his affair and the amount that he had spent on her, he disowned him after which Shah and Megha had started residing together at Nalasopara, said Tulinj police officials.