Salon executive's murder was premeditated: Cops

Mumbai: The Mumbai crime branch has found that the main accused in the murder of B-Blunt salon executive Kirti Vyas had conducted reconnaissance of the open drain in Mahul village near Wadala a day before strangling her. This revelation rebuts his claims that the murder happened on the spur of the moment in the course of a heated verbal argument over a work-related notice served to him by her.

The accused, Siddhesh Tamhankar, went there allegedly to finalise it for disposing of Vyas’ body on March 16, the day she was murdered. Tamhankar tried to mislead the investigators, saying he went to a motor garage in the area, however, when he was taken to the spot for reconstruction of events, he couldn’t substantiate his claims, officials said. This shows that the murder was pre-planned, the crime branch stated.

The unit II of crime branch has been questioning Tamhankar and Khushi Sahjwani in the case, however, they have been misleading the police. The duo is now in judicial custody and officials are trying best to locate Vyas’s body. She was thrown into the drain along with her laptop bag.

“He was a resident of the neighbourhood. The building where he used to live a few years ago is located a stone’s throw from the drain. He wanted to, perhaps, confirm if it was still safe to dispose of Vyas’ body,” said a crime branch officer.

The crime branch is still looking for the body in the drain, which connects with the creek. The officials added that the search was still underway with the Raigad and Navi Mumbai police also being roped into the search.

“They were already part of the search since day one as the shores of the creek lie in their jurisdiction. But now we have also requested to step up the search,” said another officer.

The crime branch is conducting the search with local fishermen, their boats, a Poclain machine, and locals who are helping scan the mangrove patches along the drain. The officials said that the search was held up for few days over lack of equipment; however, it has not been called off.

The officials have circumstantial evidence including the DNA reports of bloodstains found inside the boot of Sahjwani’s SUV. The other set of evidence includes CCTV footage of Vyas sitting in the car and the vehicle passing through the toll booth on the isolated BPT Creek road on which the bridge for the drain is located.