Physiotherapist, husband found dead in their Goregaon flat
The woman, Dr Rajshree Pednekar, was found strangulated in the bedroom of their flat and her husband Kishore's body was discovered in the compound below
MUMBAI: A 55-year-old physiotherapist and her husband were found dead in their building in Goregaon on Friday morning. While the woman, Dr Rajshree Pednekar, was found strangulated in the bedroom of their third floor flat, her husband Kishore Pednekar was found dead in the building compound. Police suspect that the man might have killed his wife first and later jumped to his death from their flat.
The Pednekars lived in the Topiwala Co-operative Housing Society in Goregaon West while their only son lives in Delhi, where he works in an IT company.
The body of Kishore was first found by the watchman of a bank, which has its office in the premises of the building where Kishore and his wife lived. Police said that the watchmen alerted other employees of the bank after he saw a man lying face down in the compound. At first, they assumed that he was unconscious and that he might have fallen while walking, as there was no blood anywhere around. They called the police and rushed him to the hospital, where he was declared dead.
Police officials said that when they searched Kishore’s body, they found a key hanging on a thread around his neck. They took the key and tried opening his third floor flat, and it opened. Inside, they found Rajshree lying unconscious – partially on the bed and partially on the floor. But what instantly caught their eye were the visible marks around her neck. Those were clearly strangulation marks.
The police sent the bodies for postmortem to the Shatabdi Hospital and are awaiting the report.
On investigating the couple’s personal belongings and around the flat, the Goregaon police found messages on Kishore’s phone that he had sent to his relatives before his death. Police officials said that a message sent by him read: “It’s over for us.”
In another message, he had mentioned his bank account and had mentioned that his son should be made the nominee of this account.
Meanwhile, police said that Kishore was reportedly in depression and even undergoing treatment for it. “He was depressed and was going though treatment since the past two years,” said a police officer from Goregaon police station.
The same officer also said that they have registered a case of murder and accidental death. “We are investigating further, as the motive behind the deaths is not yet clear.”
Based on the phone messages Kishore sent to his relatives prior to his death, the police suspect that he might have killed Rajshree and then jumped from the terrace of the five-storey building to his death. The police are now waiting for their son to arrive to inquire from him about the mental state of his father, and whether he was prone to becoming violent, or if he had mentioned something to him that might help the police to solve the case.
According to the Goregaon police, Kishore was a gym equipment salesman. However, he had not been working for the past many years, which could have been one of the reasons behind his depression. They also informed that the couple had been staying in the Goregaon building since several decades.