Mumbai Crime: Victim’s sandal helps cops crack tough murder case

Unit 2 of the Navi Mumbai polices Crime Branch has cracked a murder case on the basis of the victims sandal According to the police the victim was killed by a 36yearold gym trainer and his friend as she was insisting that he marry herThe womans body was found on December 14 in the Gadhi river near Dhamni village The Panvel taluka cops subsequently filed a murder case against unknown persons as a primary medical investigation revealed she had been strangulated and thrown into the river The area where the body was found is secluded and lacks CCTV camerasRiyaz Khan and Urvashi VaishnavSenior Inspector Ravindra Patil had assigned the case to a team led by Assistant Police Inspector Pravin Phadtare and Sandeep Gaikwad During the investigation we checked missing person complaints registered in the past 10 days but we didnt find any woman whose features matched those of the dead woman However we had one clue she was wearing a sandal which mentioned the name of a shop said an official privy to the investigationAlso read Mumbai New Jersey resident booked for duping jeweller of Rs 33 croreThe investigators learnt that the shop in question has branches in Panvel Vashi and Mumbai Officers were dispatched to question the staff of every branch along with pictures of the deceased A salesman from the Vashi shop claimed he had attended to the woman on December 6 On examining the shops CCTV camera footage they saw a woman that resembled the victim and was accompanied by a burly man The woman appeared to have a lighter skin tone than the deceased but the police followed the lead eventually learning that the victim was Urvashi Vaishnav 27 a Koparkhairane resident who worked at Sana bar in JuinagarOn questioning her colleagues at the bar it was confirmed that Urvashi had been missing since December 13 The person seen with her in the shoe shop was Riyaz Khan 36Riyaz Khan right Imran SheikhKhan befriended Urvashi at Sana bar He was married thrice but was hanging out with Urvashi claiming he would marry her Things took a bad turn when Urvashi asked him to marry her said API PhadtareShe would threaten to barge into his home or file a police complaint Annoyed Khan decided to finish off Urvashi he addedOn December 13 Khan called Urvashi asking her to meet him near her home After arriving at the spot in a car he ferried her towards Shilphata where his friend Imran Sheikh 28 met them Earlier in the day Imran had called Khan asking about money that he had lend lent him Khan allegedly replied that he had to finish off a woman and dump her body and if he helped him he would arrange for the money While heading from Shilphata to Panvel Khan signalled to Sheikh who was sitting behind Urvashi and the friend strangled her with a rope he was carryingThe accused drove to Dhamni village and dumped the body from the bridge on the Gadhi river on the night of December 13 The police have handed over both accused to the Panvel taluka police stationMistaken identityUrvashis brother realised on the morning of December 14 that her phone was switched off He then registered a missing complaint at the Nerul police station The police questioned auto drivers outside the bar One driver however said he had dropped the woman off at Ulwe Thinking she had accompanied a customer somewhere they didnt investigate the matter furtherAccused thought body wouldnt be identifiedAfter allegedly killing Urvashi Khan and his friend drove to Dhamni which is at the base of Matheran He thought the body would decompose in the water However the was spotted by a villager the very next day