Two years after body was found, victim’s second wife, her partner held for murder

NAVI MUMBAI: Nearly two years after a 48-year-old man was found dead along the old Mumbai-pune highway, police have arrested his second wife and her lover who allegedly killed him to usurp his property.

According to the police, the accused, identified as Pallavi Savkar Ghule alias Pallavi Vitthal Chilwant (38) and her boyfriend Ganesh Devram Darekar (32), had in 2019 planned to con one Savkar Tatyaba Ghule. Darekar, an auto driver, and Chilwant, a home nurse, were neighbours in sector 5, Koparkhairane, and were in a relationship. While Darekar had a wife and a kid, Chilwant was a divorcee.

Darekar told Chilwant about his uncle Ghule who was a resident of Junnar in Pune.

“Darekar told Chilwant that his uncle stayed alone as his first wife had left him and he had property in Junnar. The plan was Chilwant would befriend Ghule and persuade him to marry her and later usurp his property. They got married in December 2019,” police sub-inspector Sopan Rakhonde of Koparkhairane police station said. Chilwant then coaxed Ghule to sell off his property, and the latter even initiated the process and took advance payment as well. Later, he learnt that his wife was having an affair with his nephew.

In July 2020, Ghule went to his hometown. Chilwant and Darekar, with a plan to kill him, too went to Junnar. The duo convinced Ghule to come back to Koparkhairane. On their way back, at Khalapur, they fed him poisoned food and after he fell unconscious, they killed him and dumped his body on the roadside.

Chilwant was then working with a private hospital and she managed to fake a letter of death using the hospital stamp.

She tried to get a death certificate from the corporation but failed. Chilwant and Darekar then forged a death certificate as well.

The buyer of the property wanted to register it in his name and submitted an NOC by Chilwant along with Ghule’s death certificate, which was not admitted by a Junnar court. When the buyer approached Ghule’s first wife for a NOC, both families learnt of Ghule’s death.

An FIR was registered with the Khalapur police on Friday and the two were arrested. A court has remanded the accused in police custody.