The murder of a 20-year-old model was solved within two hours of her body being found in Malad on Monday, thanks to the alertness of a local informant.
According to the Bangur Nagar police, the informant saw a young man walk up to the area near Mindspace commercial centre in Malad, place a duffel bag that he was carrying on the ground, and walk away in a hurry around 4 p.m.. The informant found his movements suspicious and, after noting down the number of the autorickshaw that he got into, called the police.
A team reached the spot and, after getting the bag examined by sniffer dogs, opened it to find the body of a girl, in her twenties. The body had a length of rope around its neck and no identification on it, officers said. The police subsequently sent the body to Siddharth Hospital in Goregaon for post-mortem.
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“Using the licence plate number of the autorickshaw provided by our informant, we traced the movements of the suspect using the CCTV network. We saw him get off the autorickshaw at one point and get into a cab, which he took all the way to Oshiwara. We then sent a team to the spot,” Deputy Commissioner of Police (Zone XI) Sangramsinh Nishandar said.
The suspect, identified as Muzammil Sayyed (20), was picked up around 6 p.m. and taken to the police station. After being questioned and being confronted with the CCTV footage which had captured his actions, Mr. Sayyed allegedly broke down and confessed to have strangled the victim.
“The victim has been identified as Mansi Dixit, a model by profession, who hailed from Rajasthan. We are still working on finding out how she and the accused knew each other, and what exactly led to the murder. A lot of facts are coming to light which need to be verified,” Mr. Nishandar said.
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A team of police officers is currently conducting a search at Mr. Sayyed’s residence, while his cell phone is being examined to ascertain the exact nature of his association with Dixit.
“At this point, we only have Mr. Sayyed’s claims to go by, and we need to cross-check whatever he says before we can consider it to be the true. We are trying to identify any mutual friends that they might have had, and efforts are also under way to contact her family,” an officer who is part of the investigating team said.
Mr. Sayyed has been booked for murder and attempted destruction of evidence under the Indian Penal Code, the officer said.