The Crime Branch has stepped efforts to trace the head of a Solapur chilli trader whose chopped body parts were found in a housing society at Antop Hill. Victim Dada Jagdale, 35, was apparently killed by a police constable who suspected him of having an affair with his wife.

Sources in Crime Branch said the suspected killer, Shiv Shankar Gaikwad, was initially evasive about the spot where he disposed of the head though he now claims to have dumped it in a garbage bin at Mankhurd. Jagdale’s partially burnt, headless body was discovered around 7.30 am the next day in the vicinity of the office of the assistant police commissioner-Sion division. Gaikwad worked as the driver of the ACP. The police have also arrested Gaikwad’s wife Monali in connection with the murder.