Mumbai: Mumbai police arrested a fabrication worker for brutally stabbing Siddharth Sanghvi, vice president of HDFC bank, to death inside the basement parking of Kamala Mills. The police claimed that the accused stabbed the banker as he refused to pay Rs 35,000.
The police stated that the arrested accused, Sarfaraz Shaikh, who is also a part-time fleet taxi driver, approached the banker and demanded money for being out of job and facing monetary crunch to pay an outstanding monthly instalments of his motorbike.
However, the police said there was still no clarity of how did Shaikh manage to enter Sanghvi's Ignis vehicle, where the duo ended up into a tussle. Preliminary reports stated that Shaikh, armed with a knife, demanded money from Sanghvi. When the banker refused, he stabbed him multiple times and then slit his throat.
“The arrested accused acted himself is what we have found till now. He then drove the car stuffed with the body to Kalyan and disposed of the body near Haji Malang, from where it was recovered,” said Abhinash Kumar, deputy commissioner of police, zone 3. The officials also said that apart from his wallet and phone nothing was missing.
"We recovered Sanghvi's phone from Shaikh's custody. He had changed the sim card and made a phone call to the banker’s father on Saturday to inform that his son was fine and that the family should not attempt to do anything," added Mr Kumar. However, the police are yet to find how Shaikh managed to unlock the banker's phone. The officials are suspecting that he was the lone actor.
When asked why did the accused specifically target Sanghvi of all others, Kumar said, “He had been working in the basement since past three years and I had noticed Sanghvi.” The police are yet to confirm if this was the first conversation between the two.
After getting his custody from Navi Mumbai crime branch, who arrested him from Koperkhairane, Shaikh was produced before Bhoiwada magistrate court on Monday. The accused confessed to crime before court said that he did it in heat of the moment.
NM Joshi Marg police sought his custody to recover Sanghvi’s missing wallet and it's contents from Shaikh. Police are yet to ascertain whether more people were involved in the crime. A case has been registered under sections of kidnapping, robbery, murder with intent to robbery and murder of the Indian Penal Code.
The court remanded Shaikh to police custody till September 19 for further investigation in the case.
