A day after a 55-year-old woman from Shelgar village in Ulwe was found shot dead, the police have found CCTV footage of a man in his late 30s entering the woman’s car and driving off with her.
In another footage, the accused is seen getting out of the car and walking away. According to the police, Prabhavati Bhagat, a home maker, and her husband Balkrishna (62) were on their way to buy a sari when they stopped at Bank of Maharashtra in Sector 19, Ulwe, around 2.15 p.m..
Mr. Bhagat entered the bank and his wife was waiting in the car parked outside. Then a man got into the driver’s seat and drove the car away, the police said.
“When the accused entered the car, the woman did not raise an alarm. So we suspect that he was known to her,” a police officer, who is part of the investigating team, said. The police also suspect that a verbal duel inside the car could have led to the accused killing the woman. The officer said, “The woman’s body was found around 600 metres from the place from where she was abducted. If the accused had planned to murder her, he should have ideally taken the vehicle to an isolated place.”
The police also found the windowpane of the driver’s seat broken. The officer said, “We have found the shell of a 7.62 mm bullet inside the car. The bullet hit the victim on the right side and came out from the left side of her waist. A few years ago, the victim ran a business in Ulwe along with a partner. We have learnt that the victim’s son had an altercation with the partner recently. We are investigating all angles in the case.”
Pankaj Dahane, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Zone I), Ashok Dudhe, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Zone II), and the Crime Branch are jointly investigating the case.
