Man murders friend, disposes body parts in drain pipes

Accused allegedly killed him for not returning his money

Arnala police on Wednesday arrested a 42-year-old man for allegedly murdering a Mira Road resident and disposing his body parts in his apartment’s drainage pipes.

Police said the accused, Pinto Jai Kishan Sharma (42), a Santacruz resident, is suspected to have murdered his friend Ganesh Kolhekar (58), for not returning the money he had borrowed from Mr. Sharma. The murder took place in the accused’s second home at Bachraj Paradise, Evershine Avenue, Global City, Virar.

“We received a call from a resident of the ‘C’ wing of Bachraj Paradise about suspected body parts in the septic tank of the building on Tuesday. We found a thumb and a finger with a ring in the tank and small pieces of flesh in the pipeline behind the building,” Jayant Bajbale, Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP), Palghar said.

The residents had been complaining about choked pipelines after which the sanitation workers were called to check them. However, as the workers entered the septic tank, they discovered the body parts floating in it and informed the residents about it.

“The accused, Pinto Jai Kishan Sharma, came with the victim on January 16 and killed him. He then cut his body parts into small pieces and drained them into the pipelines so that the murder could not be identified,” Mr. Bajbale said.

The accused was arrested after the police team laid a trap for him on Wednesday, pretending to have called him from a call centre. “As we found the body parts in the tank of ‘C’ wing, we interrogated every flat. We got to know from the neighbours that flat no. 602 was closed for a long time. We arranged for a duplicate key and found some suspicious objects and tiny pieces of flesh in the flat.

The police said the victim used to print visiting and wedding cards and befriended Mr. Sharma last year when he had to print visiting cards for him. “During interrogation, Mr. Sharma told police that he invested money in the share market and admitted to murdering Kolhekar as he had taken a loan from him which he did not return on time,” an officer said. The accused has been remanded in police custody.