A 20-year-old man was arrested by the Mumbai Police on Thursday for allegedly strangulating a 67-year-old woman to death at her house in the Tanhee Heights building located in the upscale Malabar Hill area in Mumbai on Tuesday. Mumbai Police arrested the accused from Bhusawal city with the help of the Government Railway Police while he was trying to escape to Bihar.
The deceased, identified as Jyoti Shah was the wife of a diamond jeweller Mukesh Shah and had hired the accused Kanhaiya Kumar Pandit for domestic help just two days ago, news agency PTI reported.
Some stolen jewellery was also seized from the possession of the accused and a probe into the matter is currently underway, a police official stated.
Kanhaiya allegedly strangulated the victim in her house after which he went missing, leading the police to suspect him for committing the crime. Following this, the Malabar Hill police registered a case against him under section 302 of the IPC.
"The family had hired a new house help through their known person’s reference and he had joined work on Tuesday. We suspect he has killed her because he has been missing since the time of the incident," Indian Express quoted a police officer saying.
"As usual, Mukesh left his apartment around noon for work. However, at around 3 pm, he tried calling his wife for some work and as she was not answering the calls, he sensed something amiss due to which he left everything and went back home," the officer added while talking about the incident.
The report further stated that he found his wife lying motionless in the bedroom after which he rushed her to the hospital since she was not responding. However, she was declared dead on arrival.
Her body is still in the hospital for post-mortem and the police are trying to ascertain whether she was strangulated using a rope, cloth, or by hands, Indian Express reported.