In a crime that reminded of the sensational Shraddha Walkar murder case, a diamond trader’s son murdered his live-in partner at Nalasopara and hid her body in a box bed, lit incense sticks and fled only to be nabbed by cops in a difficult and technical operation.
The victim has been identified as Megha Shah alias Megha Torvi, aged around 40, who was a nurse by profession.
The suspect has been identified as Hardik Shah, who was unemployed and in financial distress.
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For the last couple of months, they were staying in a flat in Nalasopara East in the Palghar district.
Megha was the bread earner and the financial distress was resulting in frequent quarrels between the couple.
The incident took place on Sunday when the couple had a fight after which Shah smothered Megha to death.
Later Shah hid the body in the bed box, sold furniture and utensils in the local market and made some cash and fled the scene.
The body was discovered after police entered the flat following complaints by neighbours of foul smell.
On information that he was fleeing by train, the police tracked down his location and the railway police arrested him in Nagda in Madhya Pradesh.
“We came to know that he was fleeing by a train. We took technical help and in a difficult operation managed to get the suspect nabbed,” said Senior Inspector of Police Shailendra Nagarkar of Tulinj police station, which is investigating the murder case.
As part of the process, police scanned through CCTV footage and besides checking on his mobile locations and zeroed in on him.
When ascertained that he was travelling in train, the Government Railway Police was alerted and he was apprehended.