Vasai-Virar turning dumping ground... for dead bodies

Absent or dim lights on roads and too few CCTV cameras have made VasaiVirar a hotspot for criminals from nearby districts and neighbouring Gujarat to dump bodies Police found the bodies of a woman and a man in the area last weekA decomposed body of an unidentified woman in her mid20s was found near an underconstruction site of a jetty in Virar East A nylon rope was wrapped around her neck and a stone weighing about 12 kg was tied to its other end Arnala Coastal police sent the body for autopsyldquoThe body was decomposed After the postmortem we learnt that she had died of strangulation She did not die of drowning Food particles were found in her stomachrdquo Dr Rugved Dudhat a medical officer at a government hospital in Virar said ldquoThere was a butterfly tattoo on her left wrist There were also a few old marks of contusions on her handsrdquoA police team at the underconstruction jetty site where a womanrsquos body was found on Saturday PicsHanif PatelArnala Coastal police have registered an FIR under Sections 302 murder and 201 destruction of evidence of the Indian Penal Code against unknown persons and launched a probeAn officer privy to the investigation said such incidents are on the rise in VasaiVirar area ldquoAnother decomposed body of a man in his mid30s was found inside a blue drum on Vajreshwari Road on Thursdayrdquo said the officer ldquoHis hands were tied with a torn piece of a saree and the body was wrapped in a blanket It clearly shows that he was killed somewhere else and dumped near Usgaon on Vajreshwari Road to dispose of the bodyrdquo said another officer from Virar police station where an FIR under IPC Sections 302 and 201 has been filedMissing CCTV camerasmidday visited both the spots where the bodies were dumped and both the locations did not have CCTV cameras ldquoVasaiVirar is very close to Mumbai Thane City and Thane Rural The area is developing fast but the infrastructure is not up to date Most of the roads are either dim lit or lack street lights Moreover the number of CCTV cameras are inadequate and there are many open areas of dirt and gravelrdquo said a senior officer from Mira Bhayandar Vasai Virar MBVV policeIn July Vasai police recovered a suitcase containing a womanrsquos headless bodyldquoWe have also noticed that no one is bothered if a suspicious vehicle is found in their vicinity In some cases criminals were also believed to have come from Vapi and Valsad in Gujarat to dump bodies in VasaiVirar as most of its stretch is coastal and the area is bushyrdquo the officer added Another senior officer said that people in Mumbai and Thane live with room partners and their families live in villages ldquoIf a room partner is killed over some dispute the body is dumped in VasaiVirar because there is no safe location in Mumbai and Thane to dispose of the bodyldquoIn such cases no missing personrsquos complaint is registered It becomes a challenging task to establish the identity of the deceased as the killers remove all the belongings that could help in identifying Even if a body is identified no officer takes time to solve a murder caserdquo said the officerResidents unbotheredAn Arnala Coastal police officer said ldquoReal estate is mushrooming fast in VasaiVirar and the residents are all new to this fastgrowing city They hardly take any interest in informing police on finding something suspicious It is their responsibility too to remain vigilant and inform police to keep the area crime freerdquoIn July Vasai police recovered a suitcase containing a womanrsquos headless body They filed an FIR under IPC Sections 302 and 201 but the case remains unsolved till date Officers had put up several posters in Vasai in a bid to get a clue but got no helpThis year so far 44 murder cases have been registered at different police stations said MBVV policersquos public relations officer PRO ldquoThe detection rate is 91 per cent as 40 cases have been detected Out of these 40 cases victims in about 15 cases were killed outside our jurisdiction but the bodies were dumped here Investigations are underway to solve the four of the 44 murdersrdquo15No of murders that happened outside VasaiVirar