Mumbai Crime: Victim’s sandal helps cops crack tough murder case

The accused at the Panvel taluka police station

Unit 2 of the Navi Mumbai police's Crime Branch has cracked a murder case on the basis of the victim's sandal. According to the police, the victim was killed by a 36-year-old gym trainer, and his friend, as she was insisting that he marry her.

The woman's body was found on December 14 in the Gadhi river near Dhamni village. The Panvel taluka cops subsequently filed a murder case against unknown persons as a primary medical investigation revealed she had been strangulated and thrown into the river. The area where the body was found is secluded and lacks CCTV cameras.

Riyaz Khan and Urvashi Vaishnav

Senior Inspector Ravindra Patil had assigned the case to a team led by Assistant Police Inspector Pravin Phadtare and Sandeep Gaikwad. "During the investigation, we checked missing person complaints registered in the past 10 days but we didn't find any woman whose features matched those of the dead woman. However, we had one clue: she was wearing a sandal which mentioned the name of a shop," said an official privy to the investigation.

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The investigators learnt that the shop in question has branches in Panvel, Vashi and Mumbai. Officers were dispatched to question the staff of every branch along with pictures of the deceased. A salesman from the Vashi shop claimed he had attended to the woman on December 6. On examining the shop's CCTV camera footage, they saw a woman that resembled the victim and was accompanied by a burly man. The woman appeared to have a lighter skin tone than the deceased, but the police followed the lead, eventually learning that the victim was Urvashi Vaishnav, 27, a Koparkhairane resident who worked at Sana bar in Juinagar.
On questioning her colleagues at the bar, it was confirmed that Urvashi had been missing since December 13. The person seen with her in the shoe shop was Riyaz Khan, 36.

Riyaz Khan; (right) Imran Sheikh

"Khan befriended Urvashi at Sana bar. He was married thrice but was hanging out with Urvashi, claiming he would marry her. Things took a bad turn when Urvashi asked him to marry her," said API Phadtare.

"She would threaten to barge into his home or file a police complaint. Annoyed, Khan decided to finish off Urvashi," he added.

On December 13, Khan called Urvashi, asking her to meet him near her home. After arriving at the spot in a car, he ferried her towards Shilphata where his friend Imran Sheikh, 28, met them. Earlier in the day, Imran had called Khan asking about money that he had lend lent him. Khan allegedly replied that he had to finish off a woman and dump her body and if he helped him, he would arrange for the money. While heading from Shilphata to Panvel, Khan signalled to Sheikh, who was sitting behind Urvashi, and the friend strangled her with a rope he was carrying.

The accused drove to Dhamni village and dumped the body from the bridge on the Gadhi river on the night of December 13. The police have handed over both accused to the Panvel taluka police station.

Mistaken identity

Urvashi's brother realised on the morning of December 14 that her phone was switched off. He then registered a missing complaint at the Nerul police station. The police questioned auto drivers outside the bar. One driver, however, said he had dropped the woman off at Ulwe. Thinking she had accompanied a customer somewhere, they didn't investigate the matter further.

Accused thought body wouldn't be identified

After allegedly killing Urvashi, Khan and his friend drove to Dhamni, which is at the base of Matheran. He thought the body would decompose in the water. However, the was spotted by a villager the very next day.