Vasai murders: Accused duo now held, murder mystery unravelled

With the arrest of a local lodge owner and his employee, sleuths of the Manekpur police claim to have solved the murder case in which the body of a teenaged couple was found in a nullah near Sun-City in Vasai. However, the motive of killing still remains a mystery. It should be noted that bodies of Joseph Prakash Salve (22) and Priyanka Ramchandra Mohite (19) were recovered from a nullah on the Ghaas Road near Sun-City village on August 13. While the Salve stayed at Nallasopara, Priyanka was a resident of Kandivali, police said. The spot where the bodies were found is also known as “Lover’s Spot”- an isolated area often used as a night meeting point for couples. Investigations revealed that the couple had checked-in into a Maldive Farm Housea lodge in the nearby Kalam village at about 4 pm on August 12.

When the couple failed to emerge out of the room, the accused lodge ownerRamesh Mahadev Nijhai (52) and his employee Suraj Len Bahadur (20) broke inside, only to find the bodies. While the girl’s throat was found slit, the boy was ap- parently smothered to death. However, instead of informing the police, the duo put the bodies in a SUVdrove to Vasai and dumped them near the notorious Lover’s Spot. Although the duo have been arrested and remanded to police custody, the murder mystery, which is believed to be the fall out of a love triangle is yet to be unravelled.