Vasai murder: Accused stole spanner, vacated rented home 3 days earlier

According to the police, Rohit used Aarti’s mobile to call and inform her mother that he had killed her daughter, but the call did not go through

MUMBAI: The Waliv police suspect that Rohit Yadav, arrested for clobbering his girlfriend Aarti Yadav to death with a spanner on a busy Vasai road on Tuesday, had planned the murder as he had stolen the tool from a factory he had visited for a job interview a week earlier.

Vasai murder: Accused stole spanner, vacated rented home 3 days earlier

Rohit had also vacated his rented house in Santosh Bhavan, Nalasopara East, three days before the incident and had been living on the streets since then, the police said. The backpack he was carrying when he attacked Aarti had a t-shirt and track pants.

According to the police, Rohit used Aarti’s mobile to call and inform her mother that he had killed her daughter, but the call did not go through. When the police checked Aarti’s call records, the last dialled number on her phone was that of her mother. “Although the call did not go through, Yadav told us that he was calling Aarti’s mother to tell her that he had killed Aarti,” said a police officer from Waliv police station.

Aarti’s parents said that Rohit had been harassing Aarti for eight days before the murder by stopping her midway and fighting with her because he suspected she was cheating on him. Aarti’s parents also disapproved of her relationship with Rohit and had asked her to end it.

On Saturday, Yadav got agitated when he saw a man dropping Aarti home on a two-wheeler after work. He started quarrelling with her and allegedly broke her phone. Aarti had then approached the Achole police station and filed a complaint, based on which the police registered a non-cognizable case against Rohit. “We could not arrest him as the charges were non-cognizable and bailable, but warned him to stop stalking, harassing and talking to Aarti,” said a police officer from Achole police station.

Three days later, when Aarti left home for work, Rohit followed her and intercepted her on a busy road in Chinchpada, Vasai East. After the two quarrelled for some time, Rohit took out a spanner and started assaulting Aarti with it. He then stabbed her with a small knife he was carrying, even after she fell down and was lying motionless in a pool of blood, said a police officer. After the assault, Rohit sat on the side of the road near the body till the police arrived.

During the whole assault, passersby just watched and took videos and photographs, the police said. CCTV footage revealed that one passerby tried to intervene and stop Rohit from assaulting Aarti, but he backed off after Rohit attacked him. The police are hunting for the man, an important witness in the murder case.

Rohit was arrested by the police on Tuesday at the crime scene. He has been booked under section 302 (murder) of the Indian Penal Code and was produced in court on Wednesday. He has been remanded to police custody till June 24.

Police officers said that even though this was a crime of passion, there have been several such instances in the Vasai region in which women and girls from vulnerable or underprivileged families have been killed by their boyfriends or live-in partners. Minor girls who are at home while their parents are at work often become victims of such crimes, the police said.

“This has become a social problem. Parents are at work, and children have phones,” said Milind Ponkshe, a counsellor who works as the coordinator at an organisation focused on girl’s safety. He added that minor girls are seduced and drawn into relationships, and are then sexually assaulted.