Accused inspector’s driver held in missing Maharashtra woman cop’s case

Kundan Bhandari was the driver of Abhay Kurundkar, senior inspector with the security branch of Thane (rural) police

The Navi Mumbai crime branch on Tuesday arrested one more person in the missing woman police inspector’s case.

API Ashwini Bidre has been missing since April 11, 2016. (HT FILE)

Kundan Bhandari, 51, was the driver of Abhay Kurundkar, 52, senior inspector with the security branch of Thane (rural) police. Kurundkar, also an accused in the case, was arrested on December 7.

Bhandari was arrested from Kandivli.

The second accused arrested in this case was Rajesh Patil, 44, nephew of BJP leader Eknath Khadse.

Ashwini Bidre, 37, who stayed with her family at Roadpali, went missing on April 11, 2016. Her family members suspected she was kidnapped and murdered. They approached the Bombay high court as the police failed to trace her.

The police and Kurundkar’s family suspect that he had an affair with Bidre.

The police also got some photographs and videos on Bidre’s laptop and that suggested she was close to Kurundkar. Kurundkar had misled the police saying that Bidrehad gone to a Vipasana center to learn meditation.

On the day Bidre went missing, Kurundkar had called Patil’s number several times. After that Patil travelled to Mumbai from Jalgaon. The mobile phones of all three of them were traced to the same place near Mumbai.

“Based on evidences we arrested the third accused, Bhandari on Tuesday. At this point, we cannot reveal how he was involved in the crime,” said Tushar Doshi, deputy commissioner of police (crime).