Mumbai: Live-in partner, four kin held for killing Bhandup man

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The Bhandup police on Tuesday arrested five family members of a woman on the charge of killing her live-in partner. The officers said the 38-year-old victim was fatally assaulted after he kicked the pregnant daughter of his live-in partner. An auto driver has also been taken into custody for his involvement in the crime.

The police control room received a call at 6.34 am about an injured person lying at Samarth Garden. They took him to MT Agarwal Hospital where doctors said he was already dead. The police established the man's identity as Vinod Vilas Satam, resident of Gurkha Chawl at Shiv Nagar in Bhandup West.

"As soon as the deceased was identified, we rushed to his home where we found his live-in partner, her 13-year-old son from Satam, her 28-year-old daughter from earlier marriage, her son-in-law and her 60-year-old elder brother," said an officer from Bhandup police station. "We began questioning them but they were evasive."

DCP (Zone 7) Prashant Kadam visited the spot and formed a team comprising Senior Inspector Nitin Unhavane, inspector Anil Jaykar, API Pravin Phanse and PSI Vikas Jadhav.

As they kept questioning the family, the boy said that there was a fight at home on Monday night. The was a big lead. "As soon as we got the clue, we started interrogating further and learnt that all the family had thrashed Satam grievously on 25th night," said Unhavane. "When all were asked to narrate the incident the murder was revealed."

The police said Satam, who worked as a loader, often drank and abused his live-in partner Bishnu Tekbahadur Bhandari. Recently, Bishnu's pregnant daughter Lakshmi Kadam and her husband Yogesh Kadam had come to live with her. Bishnu's brother Rajendra Tekbahadur Bhandari was also at home.

On Monday night, Satam came home drunk and started abusing Bishnu. When Lakshmi intervened, Satam tried to kick her in the stomach. Lakshmi picked up a pressure cooker's lid and hit him. When Satam tried to retaliate, all the family members assaulted him with a pressure cooker and a cricket bat.

As Satam started to bleed profusely, the family hired an auto and dumped him at Samarth Garden. Since the auto driver, identified as Satish Prayal, didn't inform the police despite hearing everything, he was also arrested.