Lover murders 19-year-old, dumps her body in Eklare

Woman murdered by lover in Palghar after quarrel on their way to work. Accused apprehended. Police suspect issue of marriage led to violent turn.

PALGHAR: A 19-year-old woman working in a pharmaceutical manufacturing unit in Tarapur MIDC was murdered by her lover who smashed her head with a stone on Monday in Palghar.

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The police have apprehended the accused, Sumeet Navneet Tandel, 21, who also works in a factory in the MIDC area, and are registering a case against him.

The incident occurred on Monday around 9am, when the victim, Sneha Purshottam Chaudhari, had stepped out of her house to go to the factory with Sumeet on his two-wheeler. Both fought over some issue on their way to the workplace near Kumbhavali Naka on Murbe-Tarapur MIDC road.

Police officials said that her parents were opposed to Sneha’s relationship with the accused. The police said the quarrel was suspected to have arisen over the issue of their marriage and they are investigating further.

The quarrel took a violent turn and Sumeet allegedly hit Sneha on the back of her head. Some passersby informed the Boisar police about the assault and, Sumeet, took her on his bike, under the pretext of taking her to a nearby hospital.

When the police inquired about an injured teenager in nearby hospitals, they found none. With the help of the residents, the police started a search operation for the victim in the marshy and thorny terrain near Eklare village, a few km away from the place where the two fought.

Around 2.30 pm, the cops found a dead body with signs of profuse bleeding from the head and foaming from the mouth in the marshy terrain near Eklare. Sneha was identified by her red dress and black bag. The police said that physical examinations suggested that she was hit on her head by a big, blunt object. The body was sent for a postmortem at Tarapur Primary Health Centre.

The police then started a search operation for the accused, and he was apprehended in Satpati Village. Deputy Superintendent of Police Vikas Naik and police inspector Shirish Pawar were instrumental in investigating the crime and apprehending the accused within a few hours of the crime.