Seven years on, man arrested for murder after it was passed off as road accident

A man's death in a road accident in Navi Mumbai was actually a murder, according to police. The victim's wife and her lover are the main suspects.

Navi Mumbai: A mother’s suspicion of her son’s death in a road accident led the Raigad police to reopen the case after seven years and the investigation threw light on some startling revelations. 33-year-old Samod Mahadev Shedge, a resident of Mahad, who was killed on May 7, 2016, in a supposed road accident was in fact murdered by his wife’s lover, according to police officials. The accused, Sandeep Kalambe, 37, and Shedge’s wife Sakshi alias Neelima, made the murder look like an accident, confirmed the officials.

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Shedge was killed on Mahad-Pandharpur road when he and his wife were travelling on their bike from Borgao to Chandave in Mahad taluka at around 9pm. The police said his wife gave a statement that Shedge had died in a road accident.

“She told the police that some unidentified vehicle had hit their bike and while she jumped off to save her life, the vehicle ran over her husband who fell. The body was found around 300 feet away from the bike,” said Raigad additional superintendent of police, Atul Zende.

The mother of the deceased, Sarita Shedge, however, was suspicious about the accident and had filed a petition before the State Human Rights Commission. The commission directed the Raigad police to lodge an FIR and in May this year, Mahad MIDC police lodged the FIR. Additional SP Zende was assigned the task of investigating the matter.

During the technical analysis of the case, the police team found that the mobile phone of Shedge was missing from the accident site. The team traced the phone to Sandeep Kalambe from Bhivghar in Mahad who operated a brick kiln business. Kalambe, who had an extramarital affair with Shedge’s wife, had earlier told the police that he was not in town at the time of the accident and didn’t know anything about it.

“Upon further interrogation of Kalambe, he revealed that he was following Shedge’s bike and after his wife jumped off the bike, Shedge lost his balance and fell off. Kalambe, who was carrying a steel rod with him, hit Shedge with the rod. To save himself, Shedge tried to run away but Kalambe chased him and repeatedly bludgeoned him with the rod till he fell dead. The wife was an eyewitness to the murder but concealed it from the police. We are verifying if she was part of the plan and would accordingly arrest her,” Zende added.

According to officials, even after the murder, Shedge’s wife continued to have an affair with Kalambe who is also a married man. On the day of the accident, Shedge was taking his wife back home to Chandave from her parental house in Borgao. “The accused revealed that Shedge had come to know about their relationship and was afraid that Shedge might kill him and hence he decided to kill Shedge first,” Zende said.

The accused was produced before the police on Friday and has been remanded to police custody till next Friday.