Youth kills 70-year-old for resisting rape

NAVI MUMBAI: The body found in a gunny bag behind Inorbit Mall, suspected to be of a woman, has been identified as a 70-year-old from Govandi. She was killed by a 26-year-old man when she resisted his attempt to rape her.

The body of the deceased, identified as Bababbai Shantibai Kamble, was found in a gunny bag on August 2. Investigations revealed that she was killed on the night of July 29. She was stabbed on her neck with a bottle and then hit on her head with a stone.

Apart from the tattoo on the wrist of the deceased, the police had no primary clue. “While we looked for the missing person’s complaint in police stations in Mumbai, we found one of a 70-year-old lady with the description of a similar tattoo. The family of the missing lady was asked to identify the body,” Pramod Toradmal, inspector from Vashi police station, said.

Police interrogated around 250 people and examined around 350 CCTV footage and found the footage of the woman going towards Inorbit Mall with an unidentified man on the day of the incident.

“Using the sketch of the accused made with the help of CCTV footage, he was nabbed. To hide his identity, the accused had cut his hair and threw away his bag that was seen in the footage,” said assistant police inspector Sachin Dhage.

“The accused is a homeless man who usually slept under the Sanpada bridge and loitered around railway stations. On July 29, the deceased lost her way to home in Govandi and ended up reaching Vashi, wherein the accused saw her. On the pretext of giving her food to eat, he asked her to accompany him. He took her to an isolated area under the flyover behind Inorbit Mall and tried to sexually abuse her. When she resisted, the accused stabbed her on her neck with a broken glass bottle lying nearby, hit her head with a stone and then dumped the body in a gunny bag lying in the garbage bin,” Ramesh Chavan, senior police inspector from Vashi police station, said.

The accused was arrested on Sunday from Vashi station.