With the gory murder of Shraddha Walkar, a woman from Vasai town, by her live-in partner, still fresh in mind, one more macabre homicide has come to light in the neighbouring Mira Road in Thane district, where the police have arrested a 56-year-old Manoj Sane for killing his 36- year-old live-in partner in his flat, cutting her body into pieces, mincing body parts, cooking the same to prevent foul smell spreading.

After they found him living in a rental flat with several parts of the body of his live-in partner Saraswati Vaidya whom he had killed recently, the Naya Nagar police arrested Sane late on Wednesday night. The police on Thursday produced him before a Thane court which remanded him in police custody till June 16.

Sane — who had been living in with Saraswati in a 7th floor flat of the Akashganga building at Mira Road’s Geeta Nagar locality for the past three years — has been booked under sections 302 (murder) and 201(causing disappearance of evidence) of the IPC. 

Having collected body parts of Saraswati lying strewn in plastic bags in Sane’s seventh floor flat, the police have sent the mortal remains of the victim to  the State-run JJ Hospital in Mumbai for a forensic examination. While the motive behind the gruesome murder has not been established yet, the police are interrogating the arrested accused to ascertain the circumstances leading to the killing of the woman 

Preliminary investigations have recalled that the murder must have taken place on June 4. Since the day of murder, Sane was allegedly engaged in disposing of parts of Saraswati’s body and in the process to destroy the evidence.        

The hidden crime began to unfold on Wednesday afternoon after a resident living in a flat opposite to that of Sane experienced foul smell emanating from Sane’s flat.

He met Sane and asked him as to what was the foul smell that was coming out from his flat. Sane appeared disturbed and told his neighbour that he would look into the reason for the foul smell. Later, he left saying he would return home by 10.30 pm.

Sensing that there was something amiss, the neighbour alerted the Naya Nagar police later in the evening. The police arrived at the crime scene on Wednesday night.

That it was a ghastly murder became evident the moment the investigators entered Sane’s flat. “The moment our men entered the crime scene, they realised that it was a gruesome murder. We arrested the accused immediately after that,” Deputy Commissioner of Police Jayant Bajwale said.

After entering the flat, the investigators first found a big plastic bag on his bed with a see-saw machine lying next to it.

Inside the kitchen, the police found clumps of cut hair of a woman on the ground. Shockingly enough, they found a cooker with human flesh in it. The investigators also found several vessels containing cooked human flesh.

In the kitchen wash basin and the area down under it, the police found half burnt bones and half burnt human flesh in a bucket and in the tubs.

The investigators suspect that Sane might have disposed of some missing parts of Saraswati’s body by flushing down the toilet drain or might have fed them to the stray dogs or thrown them in the nearby mangroves. Some local residents have told the police that they had seen Sane feeding the stray dogs in the neighbourhood.  

Talking to media persons, DCP Bajwale said that the accused might have used a see-saw to cut Saraswati’s body, especially her heavy limbs.

The investigators suspect that Sane might have killed his live-in partner in a fit of rage after a fight with her. “We have not yet established the exact motive behind the murder,” a senior police officer said.

Sane is a shopkeeper in north Mumbai. He had taken the flat on lease through a property agent three years ago. It was an unsold flat which the builder had leased out through an agent.  

Saraswati’s ghastly murder is akin to that of Shraddha Walkar, a woman from Vasai town, that took place in New Delhi, where her live-in partner Aftab Poonawala had taken her, killed her and cut her into 35 pieces and  threw the parts of her across the national Capital.