A 56-year-old man was arrested after the chopped body parts of his live-in partner were recovered from a flat in Maharashtra's Thane district, an official said on Thursday. A court has remanded the man, identified as Manoj Sane, in police custody till June 16, he said.
Victim Saraswati Vaidya (36) was in a live-in relationship with Sane and the couple resided in a flat on the seventh floor of a building in the Mira-Bhayandar area for the past three years, the official said.
Police on Wednesday were alerted by local residents about a foul smell emanating from the flat, said an official from Naya Nagar police station.
A team rushed to the spot and found the decomposed body of the woman which was cut into several pieces, said the official. She was later identified as Vaidya.
The crime also sparked a war of words between the Opposition and the BJP, a ruling partner in the state.
Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Supriya Sule described the murder as "extremely horrific and outrageous" and alleged that crimes against women were on the rise in the state as criminals have no fear of law.
"A woman was killed by her live-in partner in Mira Road area. The accused tried to dispose of the body by cutting it into pieces, which he crushed in a mixer and boiled in a pressure cooker. This incident is extremely horrific, inhuman and outrageous," tweeted the NCP Member of Parliament.
She also said that Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, who handles the home portfolio, should concentrate on his department seriously.
Chitra Wagh, state BJP women's wing chief, hit out at Sule saying she was shedding crocodile tears.
"Fadnavis is capable enough to take action in the Mira Road case. But you did not feel like speaking out when a minor girl at Manchar in Pune district was kidnapped by a Muslim boy, when the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) was in power, and was not found for two-and-a-half years. Had the MVA government intervened, then Shraddha Walkar would not have been cut into pieces," she said.
"Even a chameleon will feel ashamed to see how you change colours," Wagh alleged.
Shraddha Walkar was allegedly strangled to death by her live-in partner Aaftab Poonawala on May 18 last year. The accused sawed her body into several pieces, which he kept in a refrigerator for almost three weeks at his residence in south Delhi's Mehrauli.
