Woman whose headless body was found at Bhayandar beach had big-city dreams | Mumbai news - Hindustan Times
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Woman whose headless body was found at Bhayandar beach had big-city dreams

ByMegha Sood
Jun 06, 2023 04:49 AM IST

Naigaon police have arrested Mintu Singh, a native of Bihar who worked in Bhayandar, for allegedly killing her by banging her head on wall in their house.

On Friday, Mira-Bhyandar Police found the dismembered body of a woman at Uttan beach, in Bhayandar West. She was stuffed in a blue suitcase. Her head was missing and all that the police had to go by were the large tattoos on her right hand. They surmised she was a young woman.

She was soft spoken but curt with those who remarked on her lifestyle.
She was soft spoken but curt with those who remarked on her lifestyle.

Three days later, we know the identity of body in the suitcase. She was a 23-year-old woman from Sitamarhi, a small town in Bihar, on the Indo-Nepal border, a wife, mother of a 14-month-old son, and a woman with city big dreams.

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Those who knew Anjali Mintu Singh in Naigaon East, where she lived over the last two years, spoke about her zeal to explore urban mores. Soon after her move from Vishwakarma chawl, where she came to live after being wed to Mintu Singh, to Raj Apartments in Rajvali village, she traded her traditional wardrobe for a western one, got tattoos and started using make-up. “She would often be turned out like a model,” said a neighbour.

She was soft spoken but curt with those who remarked on her lifestyle. The neighbour remembered her as pious who longed to get a tattoo of Lord Shiva. She researched tattoo artists in Vasai and Naigaon and drew a detailed art-work she wanted inked on a piece of paper, said tattoo artist Noor, who owns a salon in the neighbourhood.

“Anjali had seen my Instagram page @ Noortattooist, and came to me with a man. I did not know her, but she was very clear about what she wanted,” said Noor, adding that she paid him 2,000 for the body art.

“When Anjali had moved from Bihar to Mumbai and came to the chawl, she stood out by her choice of traditional outfits and penchant for striking lipsticks. But as soon as she shifted to Naigaon East, a kilometer-and-a-half away, she was emboldened to experiment,” said Priyanka Mishra, a homemaker and Anjali’s neighbour at both the chawl and apartment complex.

Anjali had married Mintu around two years ago – thrilled about the move to Mumbai. However, her dreams were shattered when she learnt that Mintu lived in a chawl in Naigaon – far removed from the glitter of the Mumbai of her imagination, said Priyanka.

After they moved to the flat, Anjali convinced Mintu to let her work so that a dual income could provide a better life. She found a job as a server with a catering company and doubled up as a henna artist as well.

The catering job often compelled her to keep late hours. Outstation weddings would keep her away for a few days. “That’s when the relationship started souring,” said Priyanka.

Residents of Raj Apartments would often hear raised voices from the couple’s apartment late at night. They were not known to socialise with too many people, as a neighbour said: “We just saw them leaving for work or returning home. On weekends they mostly went out together with their child.”

She had once revealed to Priyanka how she missed being surrounded by people at the chawl. “She was a free bird and did not like the cramped one-bedroom apartment with nothing to stare at besides the saltpans,” said another neighbour. Neighbours last saw Anjali stepping out of the house to buy milk for her son on the day of the incident, said Priyanka.

Although her husband claimed that he had accidentally killed her during a fight, neighbours and acquaintances said Mintu Singh, an alcoholic, might have deliberately wanted her dead as he suspected she was having an affair. “Mintu is just another Aftab -- a devil,” said a neighbour, unwilling to divulge anymore, as residents of the building have been instructed by Uttan Police to not speak about the issue.

Naigaon police have arrested Mintu Singh, a native of Bihar who worked in Bhayandar, for allegedly killing her by banging her head on wall in their house in Naigaon East, following a quarrel. He then allegedly decapitated the body and cut the torso in two pieces using a kitchen knife and disposed of the body parts separately – the head was packed in an empty paint bucket while the remaining parts were in a suitcase. Both the bucket and suitcase were dumped in the sea. Cops are still looking for the deceased’s head.

“We will carry out a search operation for the head and knife used by Mintu Singh to chop the body, in Bhayandar creek soon,” said an officer investigating the case, from Naigaon police.

Mintu and his brother Chunchun, who was his accomplice, are in police custody till June 8. Anjali’s son has been sent to her parents in Nepal. “We have called Anjali’s parents to Mumbai to claim her body,” said Jayant Bajbale, deputy commissioner of police (Mira-Bhayandar).

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