Rabale police investigations reveal woman strangulated by relative

Post-mortem of a 36-year-old woman, suspected to have died by suicide, was found to be strangulated after which Rabale police has arrested the relative of the deceased for killing her

The post-mortem of a 36-year-old woman, suspected to have died by suicide, was found to be murder by strangulation after which Rabale police has arrested the relative of the deceased for killing her.

The accused, a bank employee and a relative of the deceased woman, was arrested by Rabale police on Thursday night after post-mortem reports said she had been strangulated. (HT FILE)

The accused, identified as Samadhan Shrimant Landway (38), a bank employee and a relative of the deceased, was arrested on Thursday night.

On October 21, the deceased, Shital Manohar Nikam, was found dead in the house with a suicide note that said that she was killing herself by her own will.

“The family was under debt and the initial speculation was that she would have taken the extreme step due to the financial stress. But when the autopsy report confirmed that the death was due to strangulation, we started our investigations and suspected that Landway had killed her,” police inspector Bhaguji Auti from Rabale police station said.

The deceased’s husband had taken a loan of ₹6.5 lakh from the accused. The accused had taken a personal loan from his bank on his name. The deceased and her husband had not been giving the money for the monthly EMI due to which Landway was under pressure from his workplace.

During the investigations, police had found that the accused allegedly had an illicit relationship with the deceased and used to visit her daily when her kids went to classes and husband to work. On the day of the incident, others in the building had seen him coming to the society. The deceased referred to him as her cousin.

“On the day of the incident, the accused demanded money and fought with her. The accused then made her write a suicide note and strangulated her. He tried to hang her but could not do so and left her lying on the floor. The door of the house was slightly open. Their two-year-old neighbour entered the house and behind him entered his grandmother and saw the deceased lying on the floor and then alerted her family,” Auti said.

The accused was presented before the court on Friday and has been remanded to police custody till Tuesday.