Mamta Patel never returned after going jogging last Wednesday; post-mortem report says she drowned
Mamta Patel
Five days after a 30-year-old woman went missing after she stepped out for a morning jog, the Vasai police recovered her decomposed body from Pachu Bandar area along the coast on Sunday evening.
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Mamta Patel’s missing complaint had been filed at Tulinj police station on Thursday evening, said her cousin Dheeraj Rathod, who lives in Bhayandar. The Vasai police have registered an Accidental Death Report (ADR) and it will be transferred to the Tulinj police station for further investigation.
“She had got married on April 24 and had been living with her husband and in-laws in Vasai East since then. Last Wednesday, when she did not return home, her husband Mehul Patel started to look for her and reached her sister’s house in Vasai to find out whether she was there, but she wasn’t,” Rathod told mid-day.
“Though she was carrying a cellphone, it was switched off,” said inspector Rajendra Kamble attached to Tulinj police station.
A CCTV grab shows Mamta leaving her house last Wednesday morning. Pics/Hanif Patel
“We spread the message on social media and tried our best to search for her everywhere but our efforts were in vain. On Sunday evening, I received a call from a policeman from Pachu Bandar area of Vasai West saying they had found a woman’s body. I informed Mamta’s sister, following which she reached the spot and identified the body. Though it was in a highly decomposed condition, she identified her through the jewellery she was wearing and a birthmark behind her ear. All the ornaments were intact on her body,” Rathod added.
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He further said, “There were no external injuries on her body. The cops sent it for post-mortem in Vasai and the report suggests that she died of drowning. The cops suspect that she might have committed suicide, but I knew my sister well, she would not have done that. Also, I suspect that she left home in a rage, as she never went out jogging. Why she left at 6.40 am on Wednesday needs to be investigated.”
The deceased lived in Gujarat with her parents before her marriage. She had been working in a private firm to help her father run the house. “After her marriage, her mother-in-law died of COVID-19 and then the whole family got infected,” Rathod said, adding, “Her parents conducted her last rites on Monday.”
Kamble further said, “The post-mortem report suggests that she died of drowning. Currently no foul play is suspected but the samples have been preserved for a detailed autopsy. We will conduct a thorough investigation.”
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