Police investigating where couple spent their last six hours

Police are checking the call data records and CCTV camera footage of the Ghatkopar area to find out where they were in the afternoon after returning from Juhu. They are also checking if someone added any substance to their food or if they consumed or drank some substance unknowingly.

MUMBAI: The Pant Nagar police are trying to solve the mystery of where the Ghatkopar husband and wife, who were found dead in their bathroom on Wednesday morning, spent approximately six hours before they got home on Tuesday night after celebrating Holi with a community group in Juhu. Others who were with them reached home by 3.30 pm but the couple reached home only around 9.30 pm.

Police investigating where couple spent their last six hours

The deceased, Deepak Shah, 44, and Tina Shah, 39, were residents of Kukreja Palace in Ghatkopar East. According to the building’s watchman Bapu Sawant, on the fateful day, they came home between 9.30 and 10 pm, parked their bike and went straight to their flat on the 5th floor. They were discovered the next morning in the bathroom.

“Around two and a half months ago, the couple became members of Patidar Swajan, the group that organised the Holi celebration at Juhu,” said a police officer from the Pant Nagar police station. “The couple, along with five other families from Ghatkopar, went for the celebration. They were there till 2 pm, had lunch at the venue and left with the others.” According to one of the five friends, all reached Chheda Nagar at Ghatkopar by 3.30 pm and from there went to their houses. Only the couple reached home after 9.30 pm.

“We are checking the call data records and CCTV camera footage of the Ghatkopar area to find out where they were in the afternoon after returning from Juhu,” said the police official. “We are checking if someone added any substance to their food or if they consumed or drank some substance unknowingly.”

The next day at 10 am, Deepak’s father, Shantilal Shah, called him on his mobile phone as usual but did not get any response. At noon, Reshma Gangurde, the domestic help, reached the house and rang the doorbell several times. When no one answered, she called Deepak and Tina on their mobiles but got no response. She then called Deepak’s father, who asked Deepak’s uncle, who lives in another wing of the building, to go there with the spare keys.

When they entered the house, they heard the sound of the running shower. The bathroom door was open and the couple was lying on the floor. The police were informed and a doctor was summoned. Both husband and wife were declared dead and their bodies sent to Rajawadi Hospital.

“There were no external injury marks noticed on the bodies,” said the police officer. “The doctors, after examining them, informed us that the couple had not died due to an electric shock or after inhaling any poisonous gas. The viscera samples have been sent to the forensic science laboratory for chemical analysis.” Added senior police inspector Ravidatt Sawant. “As of now there is no clarity on how they died. We are awaiting the post-mortem and forensic report.”

Deepak was in the garments trading business and divorced his first wife, from whom he has two daughters, a few years earlier. He married Tina two years ago. “The deaths have scared everyone and left us wondering how both died together,” said Rajesh Sariya, Deepak’s cousin. “There is some discussion that both died due to gas leakage from the geyser. The post-mortem report will make it clear.”