A 27-year-old woman’s decomposed body was found at her residence in Khandeshwar on Sunday evening after neighbours complained about a foul smell from the locked flat. The police suspect that Anjali Pawar’s husband Praveen Pawar, who is on the run, is behind the murder.
“I got a call at around 4.30 p.m. from residents of Sai Leela building in Akurli village, wherein I had rented out my one-room-kitchen flat to Praveen from Roha, a month ago. After I went there, I realised that there was something wrong and hence called the police. The lock of the door was broken,” said Balasaheb Mane, owner of the flat.
Mr. Mane and police officials saw a trail of blood from the hall to the bathroom where the body of a lady was wrapped in a cloth. “When the cloth was removed, it was found that the lady had no clothes and there were assault marks on her neck and deep cuts on her wrists,” said Mr. Mane.
“The murder seems to have been committed two or three days ago. Even as the rent agreement is with Praveen, we have got information that Anjali stayed alone and Praveen visited her once in a while. We are not sure if they are married, but prima facie he seems to be her husband, and is the main suspect,” said assistant police inspector Santosh Jadhav. “Investigations found that the victim was a sex worker and hence it’s difficult to confirm if Praveen was her husband. We have not been able to trace any of their relatives.”
The police found a picture of Anjali with a child. “None of the neighbours have ever seen the child with her. We don’t know who the child is and where he resides. Everything could be cleared once we trace Praveen, whose cell phone is switched off. We are working on his call detail record. A team had gone to Roha but found that Praveen had shifted to Saswad in Pune, and the team has gone there,” API Jadhav said.
According to the police, the death was due to excessive bleeding from the deep cuts and there has been no sexual assault. A case against an unidentified person has been registered with the Khandeshwar police under Section 302 of the IPC.
The writer is a freelance journalist
