THE CASE UNFOLDS
MUMBAI: The body of 39-year-old bank executive Siddharth Sanghvi, who went missing on September 5, was found on Monday morning, near Kopar Khairane.
The police have cited robbery as a possible motivation for his murder.
An investigation is presently underway.
On Sunday night, the Mumbai police questioned 20-yearold contract labourer Sarfaraz Shaikh because he had used Sanghvi’s phone.
According to the police, Shaikh confessed to attempting to rob Sanghvi and killing him when Sanghvi refused to give Shaikh the money he had asked for.
Shaikh said he needed money to pay monthly instalments on a motor bike he had purchased and according to the police, he chose to commit the crime in the parking lot because he knew there wouldn’t be a security guard at that spot.
Shaikh told the police that he slit Sanghvi’s throat because Sanghvi had raised his voice. Shaikh also stabbed Sanghvi multiple times and then stuffed Sanghvi’s body into Sanghvi’s car, in the leg-space area of the back seat.
Shaikh then drove the car to Navi Mumbai, where he lives. Before going to his residence, Shaikh first dumped Sanghvi’s body and then abandoned the car.
He kept Sanghvi’s phone, which led to him being caught. The police had found Sanghvi’s car on September 6. Deputy commissioner of police Avinash Kumar said a knife was found in the car, which the police believe is the murder weapon.
The back seat of the car also had blood stains.
Preliminary police investigations have revealed that on September 8, Shaikh removed Sanghvi’s SIM card from the victim’s mobile phone and inserted his own into the mobile handset.
He then called Sanghvi’s father and told him that Sanghvi was fine and that the family should wait for the next phone call.
Sanghvi’s father reported the call to the police, who added kidnapping to the missing person’s complaint.
After searching the location given by Shaikh during his questioning on Sunday, the police found Sanghvi’s body on Monday morning.
It was partially decomposed. Kumar said that the throat was slit and the body bore marks of being stabbed repeatedly with a sharp object.
Sanghvi was a vice president at HDFC Bank and was last seen on September 5, when he left office at 7.30pm.
His wife filed a missing person complaint the same night when he didn’t return home or pick up phone calls.
The police initially suspected professional rivalry to have motivated Sanghvi’s kidnapping.
However, after Shaikh’s confession, Kumar said the murder appears to have been a case of robbery gone wrong.
Shaikh is currently in police custody till September 19. Kumar said the police investigation, which is still underway, will explore all angles and will seek to discover if Shaikh’s confessed motive was real.