Vasai murder: Victim Aarti Yadav was the only person close to the orphaned accused, Rohit Yadav
Rohit, who hails from Haryana, lived alone in a rented room in Santosh Bhavan, Nalasopara East, for the past six years. His father, a farmer, died 18 years ago, and he later also lost his mother and his younger sister, who was electrocuted
MUMBAI: Twenty-two-year-old Aarti Yadav was the only person who was close to her boyfriend Rohit Yadav, an orphan, and he allegedly decided to kill her after realising she too was getting out of his life, according to the Waliv police. The investigation has also revealed that Yadav, 29, was unemployed for a while and had tried to commit suicide twice in the past year.
Rohit, who hails from Haryana, lived alone in a rented room in Santosh Bhavan, Nalasopara East, for the past six years. His father, a farmer, died 18 years ago, and he later also lost his mother and his younger sister, who was electrocuted.
After the tragic deaths of his family members, Yadav, who had dropped out of Class 8, moved from Haryana to his uncle’s home in Vadodara. He stayed there for around three years before moving to Mumbai in 2018, where he started working at a factory in Vasai. He met Aarti at her father’s paani puri stall in Gala Nagar, minutes away from his home.
Yadav had told Aarti that he was a graduate of Arts and worked for a film studio. “I knew Rohit was lying to my daughter, and that is why when he told me he wanted to marry Aarti, I told him to buy a flat first,” said Ramdular Yadav, Aarti’s father. When he found out that Rohit was lying to him and his daughter about buying a house in Naigaon, Ramdular refused to get his daughter married to him. “How could I let my daughter marry an orphan who did not have any future?” said Ramdular.
Aarti had studied till Class 12 and wanted to pursue computer science. However, she decided to work at a leather factory to contribute financially at home after her father’s paani puri stall went out of business a few months ago. She used to give her entire ₹8,000 salary to her mother. “My daughter was a responsible person who told me that she wanted to start earning and help us give a good future to her younger siblings – two sisters and a brother,” said Aarti’s mother, Veena Yadav.
After Aarti agreed to break up with Rohit, she and her parents went to their village in Ghazipur, Uttar Pradesh, where her marriage was fixed with a man from Kandivali. They planned to get married close to Diwali this year. “When Rohit heard about this, he began harassing Aarti and displaying his possessiveness,” said Dinesh Yadav, Aarti’s uncle.
Dinesh said that Rohit could not tolerate Aarti talking to anyone. On Saturday, when one of her cousins dropped her home after picking up her father’s medicine, Rohit picked up a fight with her and assaulted them. “That was the last straw for Aarti. She decided to report Rohit to the police and get a case registered against him and get rid of him,” Dinesh added.
“We just want Rohit to be hanged,” said Veena, struggling to control her tears. “We want justice for our daughter.”