Woman cop's murder: Navy divers fail to find trunk containing cop's body parts

Navy divers search for the trunk containing API Ashwini Bidre's body parts in Vasai creek on Monday. Pics/Hanif Patel

The Navi Mumbai police along with Navy divers carried out a search for the trunk in which assistant inspector Ashwini Bidre's body parts were said to have been dumped before being thrown in Vasai creek.

A police officer said, "Nine [Navy] divers were involved in the search operation, [undertaken with the help of] magnets and metal detection technology. The search was carried out for three hours and 20 minutes, but the divers failed to find anything. The search will resume on Tuesday morning."

The Navi Mumbai police commissioner and Bidre's estranged husband Raju Gore were present for the entire operation. Talking to mid-day, Gore said, "I am not happy with the ongoing search operation; no hi-tech equipment was used, only a simple sonar machine. This creek has thick mud at the bottom; there's every possibility of the trunk having sunk right down in two years. The police are protecting the main accused, Abhay Kurundkar."

Bidre went missing from April 11, 2016; so far, four people have been arrested in the case - inspector Abhay Kurundkar, his driver Kundan Bhandari and friends Rajesh Patil and Mahesh Palnikar. Palnikar had confessed to the police that Bidre was butchered to death and her body parts stored in the fridge at Kurundkar's rented flat in Bhayander. After a couple of days, her body parts were allegedly put in a trunk and thrown in the creek.

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