How a headless body probe in Mumbai circled back to police
MUMBAI: On September 30, 2021, at around 7.30am, a labourer at a construction site stepped out of his shanty behind building number 98 of the Central Government Scheme (CGS) residential colony at Antop Hill.
The 35-year-old man, who did not wish to be named, said he saw a shapeless plastic cover, burnt in some places, lying some 25 feet away on the open ground. On closer inspection, he saw a severed leg. Shocked, the man rushed to the office of the assistant commissioner of police (ACP), Sion, located in front of the CGS building. The labourer met police constable Shivaji Kamble, and told him about what he had seen.
Kamble called the Antop Hill police station, 2km away, and rushed to the spot. Police inspector Prabha Raul, whose night shift was at an end, arrived within minutes.
Here’s what they found: an inflatable air mattress contained a naked human torso, a bedsheet contained arms and legs; both coverings were partly burnt. The head was missing. There were no identifying documents. “It (the deceased) was a male; his head, hands and legs were severed. The killer had tried to burn the body parts, but failed to do it properly because it had rained the previous night. We inspected the spot in the presence of witnesses and prepared spot and inquest panchnama (memorandum) and sent the body parts for autopsy to Sion Hospital,” said Raul.
Within 10 days, and an investigation that took officers to five states and scour online purchases dating back five years, the police identified the deceased and zeroed in on the suspect — a 45-year-old constable named Shivshankar Gaikwad (45) — who was posted as a driver at the Sion ACP’s office. The deceased — a chilli trader from Solapur — was known to Gaikwad’s wife, Monali (35), and had visited her the day he was murdered. The two reportedly tried to dispose of the body parts that same night by burning it, but the rain played spoilsport.
Gaikwad and his wife, Monali were arrested on October 9. They were sent to judicial custody on October 22. Their judicial custody, which was to end on November 5, was extended recently. The case brought back memories of the 2008 grisly murder of TV producer Neeraj Grover, whose burnt body parts were found dumped in a forest. Police later arrested Emile Jerome, a naval officer, for allegedly murdering Grover after the producer spent a night with his fiance, actor Maria Susairaj.
The investigation
The first task for the police was to identify the deceased, but without a face, they had little to go on: On one of the arms was a tattoo, “Dada”, which in Marathi refers to big brother. An ankle had a metal implant.
“On finding the body, we searched the nearby areas, but couldn’t find the head,” Raul said. Seven teams of Antop Hill police station and eight teams from two different Crime Branch (CB) units started working on different leads, said deputy commissioner of police (CB) Prakash Jadhav, who was in charge of the investigation.
To begin with, the police scrutinised the footage of around 50 close circuit television (CCTV) cameras located in the vicinity of CGS complex and the ACP’s office. The investigators then began to interview everyone in the vicinity, including labourers and contractors who were working on construction sites. They also spoke to residents of the CGS colony. Over 500 people were interviewed. Eventually, the investigators zeroed in on a Maruti Wagon R, captured entering the CGS building compound shortly after midnight. This proved to be their first break.
Tracking the clues
The torso was wrapped in a black Air-O-Space 5, an inflatable singlebed mattress, and the legs and hands were wrapped in a pink bedsheet. Two police teams contacted the manufacturers of these items, and collected purchase information dating back to five years ago. The manufacturer had sold 15,000 pieces of the inflatable mattress during this period.
“We segregated the data statewise, and started checking the list of the customers who had bought the Air-O-Space 5 single-bed inflatable mattresses,” said police inspector Indrajeet More of unit 4, which was part of this investigation.
Meanwhile, the post-mortem examination conducted at Sion hospital threw up another crucial clue: doctors noticed an aluminium plate implanted in the left ankle of the victim. As with all medical grade implants, this too carried a unique serial number which would help the investigators trace its antecedents.
“The plate was manufactured by a firm based in Ahmedabad,” More said. A team went to Gujarat, and on speaking to the manufacturer, found that 41 plates of the particular make had been sold in six states, including Maharashtra.
“We got the contact numbers of the distributors and from them we got the list of hospitals where the plates were used on patients. We also collected addresses of the patients. Several officers scoured cities across the country to identify the patients on whom the plates were implanted,” said More. Teams visited cities in Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal, and a few cities in Maharashtra.
One such team reached a Solapur-based hospital, and found that a 38-year-old trader named Dada Jagdale had an implant in his ankle in 2019. But it was only when they visited his house in Solapur that they realised that they had found their victim. Jagdale had not been home since September 29.
The victim
Jagdale’s family members were frantic with worry. They told police that the father of three — two daughters (aged 10 and 4) and a son (8) — had gone to Pune from where, on September 29, he went to Mumbai to meet a friend.
“At about 10.30am, he told us that he had sent off the [goods] by tempo, and was going to Mumbai. Since that afternoon, his phone was switched off,” the man’s father Ankush Jagdale, 61, said.
Jagdale had a tattoo on his hand, they told the cops. It was the word “Dada”. “On further enquiry we learnt that Jagdale was once in a relationship in with Monali, who used to live in the same locality but got married to a policeman posted in Mumbai,” More said.
After getting Jagdale’s mobile number from his family, the police checked his call data records, and found he exchanged several calls with Monali. He even spoke to her on the morning of September 29. “This turned out to be an important lead and clearly indicated that Shivshankar was possibly involved in the murder, as his vehicle — a Wagon R — was recorded entering the CGS colony on the intervening night of September 29-30,” More said.
On October 9, a three-member team led by More went to Gaikwad’s home at the police colony in Worli, posing as civil contractors because they didn’t want Gaikwad to catch wind of an impending arrest.
The officers borrowed safety caps from some labourers, and once they entered the house, pretended to check for repairs. They then asked Gaikwad to come down to meet their senior, who would tell him about the work being done. “As soon as he came down, we made him sit in the car. We told him to call his wife and ask her to come down without revealing anything to her. He then called her and we took her in custody. We brought them to the unit office in Antop Hill,” More said.
During interrogation, police said, Monali revealed what had happened — Gaikwad murdered Jagdale at their house, severed the body parts, wrapped them in an inflatable mattress, and dumped them behind CGS colony. Monali told police that Jagdale called her on September 29 and told her that he would visit her in Mumbai the following day. They reportedly argued about this, after Monali told him that Gaikwad did not like him meeting her. But Jagdale insisted on the meeting.
Monali told Gaikwad about Jagdale’s visit, and the following day, Gaikwad received Jagdale at the Dadar bus stop at 2 pm. As per Gaikwad’s statement, they drank at a bar in Worli, and Gaikwad then took Jagdale home around 5pm.
Gaikwad had earlier bought a sickle from a shop in Antop Hill. When they got home, Gaikwad reportedly confronted Jagdale over his relationship with Monali, and as the row escalated, Gaikwad’s 15-year-old daughter ran out of the house. Gaikwad struck a blow to Jagdale’s head with the sickle, and an injured Jagdale frantically scrambled to take cover in another room. “Gaikwad followed him and closed the door of the room behind him and came out after chopping the body to pieces,” More said.
Destruction of evidence The police driver wrapped the torso in the inflatable mattress, and the hands and legs in the bedsheet. He cleaned the house, and convinced his wife to help him dispose of the body parts, More added.
The couple did not carry mobile phones when they went to CGS colony to avoid detection. Gaikwad threw the murder weapon in a nullah at Worli. After three days of search, on October 13, the sickle was recovered, More said.
The couple were eventually charged under sections 302 (murder), 201 ( disappearance of evidence) and 34 (common intention) of the Indian Penal Code.
Gaikwad’s 43-year-old sister Sunita (who did not wish to use her last name), refuses to believe that the allegations levelled against her brother and sister-in-law. “This (the case against the couple) is false,” the Solapur resident said.
She learnt about the murder and arrest from newspapers. With both parents in police custody, Gaikwad’s 70-year-old mother Kantabai is now taking care of the two young daughters.
An officer carries the carcass of a demoiselle crane, in Kaparda village.
THE INVESTIGATION TOOK OFFICERS TO FIVE STATES AND THEY SCOURED ONLINE PURCHASES DATING BACK FIVE YEARS. THE POLICE IDENTIFIED THE DECEASED AND ZEROED IN ON THE SUSPECT