The Dahisar police on Thursday arrested a 29-year-old man from West Bengal in connection with the murder of a bar girl.
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The 34-year-old victim used to work as a waiter at a bar and the police have withheld her identity. She was found dead at her residence in Shanti Nagar, Dahisar, at 4.30 p.m. on December 29 when her housemaid came to do her daily chores. The police had at the time registered an accidental death report.
“We went through her call records and identified one number that had been in constant touch with her for several months, including the day before her body was found. We started checking the cellular movements of this number and scanned CCTV footage. The footage showed a suspect entering the building late on the night of December 28 and leaving in the early hours of the next day,” an officer with the Dahisar police said.
The number, meanwhile, was found to be registered to one Swapan Rohidas, a native of West Bengal, who used to work in a gold jewellery manufacturing unit in Dahisar. A police team visited his residence in Howrah and brought him to Mumbai on Thursday.
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Mr. Rohidas has allegedly told the police that he was a frequent visitor to the bar, and the two got into a relationship. Mr. Rohidas has a wife and two children in Howrah.
“Mr. Rohidas claims the victim had started asking him for money and was threatening to tell his family about their affair if he didn’t comply. In the early hours of December 29, Mr. Rohidas strangled her using a towel at her residence. He then made away with ₹40,000 in cash and gold jewellery worth ₹2 lakh to make her death look like a robbery gone wrong,” another officer said.
Mr. Rohidas took a flight to Howrah the same afternoon and had been staying with his family since then. The police have booked him for murder under the Indian Penal Code.