When a 25-year-old man decided to get his initials and that of his beloved tattooed on his body, he would not have thought that one day they would lead the police to his killers.
The Parksite police found a decomposed body close to the IIT Bombay campus in Powai on February 20. The level of decomposition was such that it was impossible to identify the body. Doctors who conducted the post-mortem at Rajawadi Hospital in Ghatkopar said the face had been bashed in with a heavy and blunt object.
The police then registered a case of murder and destruction of evidence against unknown persons.
An officer, who was part of the investigating team, said, “The only clue we had was two tattoos on the body. One was heart shaped with the initials ‘SR’ on the neck, and another on the arm had the initials ‘SN’. We circulated a physical description of the victim to all police stations in Mumbai, nearby commissonerates and on WhatsApp groups our officers are part of.”
The officer said after five days, the RCF police came up with a possible clue. “We were expecting a missing person’s complaint registered in his name somewhere. However, the RCF police informed us that they had arrested a man last year in an assault case who fit the description. As a practice, distinguishing marks of all arrested accused are recorded in the FIR,” the officer said.
Based on the FIR, the police identified the deceased as Siddharth Satpute, a resident of RCF area in Chembur. He had been arrested for allegedly assaulting his brother-in-law with a sickle.
Crucial clue
The police visited Satpute’s residence and spoke to his neighbours, who told them that his wife had moved out with their son a few months ago. The neighbours told the police that the ‘S’ in both tattoos stood for Satpute’s first name, while the ‘R’ represented his former love interest, and the ‘N’ was for his wife.
The officer said, “We also made inquiries with his wife, who said despite being separated, Satpute regularly turned up at her house and created a scene. He even assaulted her mother in front of her and her brothers. We kept a watch on her family members and with the help of local informants learned that her two brothers, Nikhil and Ravi Tak, were seen with him a few days before the body was found.”
Both the brothers were picked up for inquiries and after sustained questioning, they broke down and confessed to the crime. “It was Ravi that Satpute had assaulted last year and got arrested for. On February 18, the duo invited him for a drink near the spot where the body was found. They waited for him to get drunk and bashed his face in with a stone,” the officer said.
The duo has been arrested. They have named two friends as accomplices and the police are looking for them, officers said.
