3 days Ago By Asseem Shaikh
Pune: It was a shocking end to a desperate two-day search for a missing woman. Phursungi police on Saturday opened a murder investigation after a man discovered the body of his wife stuffed inside the storage compartment of the very sofa-cum-bed he had been sleeping on for two days, while he searched for her. The deceased has been identified as Swapnali Umesh Pawar (24), a resident of Hundekar Vasti, near Hadapsar.
She was last heard from on Nov 7 when her husband Umesh had called her around 10am. Umesh, who works as a cab driver, was in Beed to drop a passenger when he had called to check on her. But the next day he was unable to reach her despite repeated attempts — her phone had been turned off.
Worried, Umesh then asked a friend in Pune to go to his house, only to be told there was no sign of his wife at their home. The cabbie returned to Pune the same day around 12.30pm and began what would be an extensive search.
For the next two days, he rode through Hadapsar's neighbourhoods on a bike, looking for his wife. He also visited homes of friends and family, but there was no sign of Swapnali. On Saturday morning, around 7am, after discovering that some of his wife's valuables were also missing, Umesh opened up the small storage compartment inside the sofa-cum-bed, and found his wife's body stuffed inside.
"Tragically, it was the very piece of furniture he was sleeping on, a 4x6ft unit. He's in a state of shock," said senior inspector Mangal Modhawe of Phursungi police. "We believe she was strangled to death.
" The discovery was relayed to Pune police control room, which dispatched a team to the house. By Saturday evening, a postmortem confirmed strangulation was the cause of death. It also found nail marks on the neck.
Cops said they suspect the involvement of an individual the deceased likely knew as there were no signs of forced entry at the couple's apartment. "This person's phone has been switched off ever since Swapnali's body was found," said deputy commissioner of police (Zone V) R Raja, adding that preliminary investigations do point to murder. The investigators have, for now, also established that Umesh was indeed not in Pune when the crime likely occurred.
Assistant commissioner of police (Hadapsar Division) Ashwini Rakh, who inspected the crime scene said, the injury marks on Swapnali's neck were likely the result of her being throttled by an assailant. "Theirs was a rented flat. Umesh (36) and Swapnali had been married for around four years.
The apartment building doesn't have CCTV or a security guard. We're now reviewing footage from cameras on the road that lead up to the building," Rakh said. As for the suspect, cops said they've learnt that this individual was a frequent guest at the couple's flat, even staying over sometimes.
A police canine has picked up a trail and fingerprints have also been recovered from the scene. "This individual was also not found at his home in Ghondalenagar in Hadapsar when we visited," said Rakh. An FIR relating to murder and robbery has been registered, based on a complaint filed by Umesh, police said.
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