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Nephew’s wife held for 70-year-old’s murder in Mumbai
Four days after the murder of a 70-year-old woman in Chembur, Tilak Nagar police arrested her nephew’s wife on Thursday.
Four days after the murder of a 70-year-old woman in Chembur, Tilak Nagar police arrested her nephew’s wife on Thursday.
The police said the accused, identified as 32-year-old Anjana Patil, hit her husband’s aunt Sajanabai Patil on her head with a bat and then strangled her to death. She then dragged the Sajanabai’s body to the bathroom and ransacked the house to make the murder look like a part of a robbery attempt, said a police officer.
Anjana, her husband Dinesh and Sajanabai used to stay on the first floor of Nav Bharat Cooperative Society. Dinesh is employed at a petroleum firm, while Anjana is a homemaker. Her parents also stay in the same building.
According to the police, the two women used to quarrel frequently over trivial issues. Recently, Anjana took some cash which Sajanabai withdrew the post office, without informing the latter. Sajanabai suspected that Anjana took the money and confronted her over the issue.
“On Monday, there was a heated argument between the two women when the victim questioned the accused about the money the issue. In fit of rage, the accused picked up a bat lying in the house and hit the victim on her head repeatedly. She later strangled her with a rope,” said deputy commissioner of police Datta Nalawade, in-charge of Zone 6.
She then dragged the victim’s body to the bathroom and cleaned blood stains from the floor as well from the senior citizen’s clothes. “The accused then hid her own blood-stained gown and ransacked the house and scattered clothes from the wardrobe in the room so that it would seem that the victim was murdered by robbers,” added Nalawade. Anjana then left the door open and went to her parents home who live in the same building.
Around 4pm, when the accused’s sister in-law went to her house, she found Sajanabai lying in a pool of blood and alerted the other relatives in the building and the police. The victim’s body was taken to Rajawadi Hospital, where she was declared dead.
The doctors at the hospital found multiple injuries on the victim’s head as well as strangulation marks around her neck, following which the police filed a case of murder against unidentified people and questioned all the relatives and neighbours. The police learnt from the neighbours that the two women would often have arguments and that Anjana was in the house at the time of the murder. There were also discrepancies in Anjana’s statement, who claimed that the woman fell in the bathroom and died, said the police. After repeated interrogations, Anjana confessed to the crime, following which she was arrested for murder and destruction of evidence, said Nalawade.
