Mumbai HDFC VP Siddharth Sanghvi found dead, colleagues hired killer

Mumbai: The body of HDFC Bank vice president Siddharth Sanghvi, who went missing on September 5, was found in Kalyan’s Haji Malang, on Sunday.

The Mumbai police arrested Sarfaraz Shaikh, a driver with a taxi aggregator, among three others but has not divulged about their connection to the murder of Sanghvi.

Read: Cops apprehend four for killing banker Sanghvi

20-year-old Sarafaz Shaikh, resident of Navi Mumbai, was spotted on CCTV cameras near Sanghvi’s Maruti Suzuki Ignis, which was found dumped on September 6 in Koparkhairane.

According to reports, Shaikh has confessed to murdering the 39-year-old banker outside his office in Kamala Mills, Lower Parel. He claimed that he was hired by Sanhvi’s jealous colleagues to kill him. Shaikh further added that after killing the banker, he used his vehicle to dispose off the body in Navi Mumbai on September 5.

Reports said that Shaikh was hired by Sanghvi’s colleague to kill him as the person was jealous of the deceased's recent promotion.

Shaikh has been trying to mislead the police investigating the case since his detention on Sunday. “He initially claimed that he was hired by a woman to kill Sanghvi. We showed him a number of photographs, including that of Sanghvi’s wife, but he later backtracked,” Mumbai Mirror reported a police official saying.

Shaikh then allegedly claimed that he killed Sanghvi during a robbery gone wrong. But he was trapped again for giving varying statements after the police questioned him about why he dumped the body so far from the crime scene.

Shaikh then finally told the police that three people had approached him with a ‘murder contract’. According to sources to Mumbai Mirror, Shaikh has not revealed much about the identities of three people; all that he has divulged on constant questioning is that two of them worked with HDFC Bank, were jealous of Sanghvi’s quick promotions and wanted him killed.

Sanghvi was last seen on CCTV cameras leaving his office in Kamala Mills around 7.30 pm on September 5. His family called him up around 8.30 pm, but there was no response. An hour later, they tried again but found that his phone was switched off. The panic-stricken family then called Sanghvi’s friends and colleagues, but failed to get his whereabouts.

A missing person complaint was filed the next day at NM Joshi Marg police station. The police on the same day, found Sanghvi’s car around 9:30 pm in Navi Mumbai. Traces of blood were found in the rear seat of the banker’s car. Police also recovered a knife from the banker’s vehicle.

Sanghvi lived with his wife and four-year-old son at Malabar Hills in South Mumbai.

Sanghvi joined the HDFC bank in 2007 as senior manager. In 2011 he was promoted to assistant vice-president and in 2015, he was made the deputy vice-president. In January 2017, Sanghvi was promoted to the post of vice president. In span of ten years, Sanghvi was promoted thrice and this might have been one of the reasons why his colleagues were jealous of him.