Senior citizen held for murder of woman

A 60-year-old man has been arrested by the police for the murder of a 40-year-old sex worker at Shivaji Nagar.

The accused Babu Bhagwan Patel (60), an estate agent, has been arrested by the police on Tuesday night.

On May 8, Patel had called the victim Meena Joshi to his residence at Navi Mumbai where he attacked and stabbed her with a knife. Patel then dumped the body in an empty water drum near the MHADA colony at Shivaji Nagar.

According to the police, Patel was residing at the same MHADA building a decade ago. Later, he shifted to his residence at Nerul in Navi Mumbai.

The locals called the police after a foul smell was emanating from Parikh compound at Shivaji Nagar.

The Shivaji Nagar police, on May 11, had found the water drum containing the body of the woman from there.

According to Shahaji Umap, Deputy Commis- sioner of Police, Zone 6, “The accused had been arrested on Tuesday night. Six teams have been dispatched to several locations in Maharashtra to trace the wife of the accused. One of the teams has been dispatched to Jalgaon to trace his wife. We are suspecting that his wife too was involved in the murder. Patel has confessed to the murder. The motive behind the murder is not yet clear.”

During investigation, a tempo driver told the police that he had been paid Rs 600 by Patel to deliver the drum at Shivaji Nagar. The driver said that he had picked up the drum from near the APMC market in Navi Mumbai.

The dead body of the lady was sent to Rajawadi hospital at Ghatkopar for postmortem. The police had also circulated the photograph of the victim so that her body could be identified to carry out further investigations.

Patel will be produced at the Magistrate court on Friday. He has been arrested for murder (Section 302) of the Indian Penal Code.