Virar: Suitcase murder solved within 24 hours

The contact number on a jewellery pouch found with the severed head of a woman inside a suitcase in the Virar jungle helped Crime Branch Unit 3 to solve a murder mystery within 24 hours and nab the victimrsquos husbandHarish Hipparagi 49 husband of the murdered woman Utpala alias Soma Das 51 was arrested from Nalasopara on Friday night However the victimrsquos torso has yet to be found from the drain in Nalasopara East where the killer had decapitated her body using a chopper on January 8According to the police Das and Hipparagi got married nearly 25 years ago and have a 22yearold son They were living in a rented flat in Nalasopara East and worked together in making imitation jewelleryThe murdered woman and her husband who has been arrestedldquoDas was a native of Naihati city in North 24 Parganas district of West Bengal while Hipparagi hails from Hubli district in Karnataka After their love marriage Das would often go back to her hometown and come back after six or seven monthsrdquo inspector Sahuraj Ranaware incharge of Unit 3 Crime Branch Mira Bhayandar Vasai Virar MBVV Police told middayldquoThis time too she had been planning to go to her hometown on January 10 This angered Hipparagi who strangled her to death on January 8 when their son was away at his friendrsquos placerdquo Ranaware addedAccidentally left pouchThe police said that the ldquokiller husbandrdquo as they are terming him packed her body inside a gunny bag and took it along with a chopper and an empty suitcase on his scooty to Nalasopara EastldquoHe stopped at a secluded place dragged the gunny bag to a nearby drain and decapitated the body Then he concealed the head in the suitcase and dumped the torso in the drainrdquo said a crime branch officerldquoHipparagi then carried the suitcase on his scooty and dumped it into a thick bush near Virar phatardquo Ranaware saidAfter recovering the highly decomposed skull the Mandvi police had registered an FIR and the police led by senior inspector Sanjay Hajare began to investigate The crime branch too had started investigatngThe killerrsquos mistake was to leave behind an empty jewellery pouch in the suitcase and this helped our teams led by inspector Sahuraj Ranaware and API Suhas Kamble in solving ldquoan absolute blind caserdquo said Deputy Commissioner of Police Crime Branch Avinash AmbureWB Police steps upA contact number and address on the pouch led the police to outstation customers of which one number was recently switched off in Nalasopara said the policeThe local police station in Naihati West Bengal helped in getting the details of a female customer who would often visit the jewellery shop in her hometown the police addedHer relatives told the police she was to visit them in January but had been incommunicado for over two monthsThe police traced the owner of the switchedoff phone in Nalasopara and his friend told them that he had recently purchased a scooter registered in Vasai RTOThe police found the scooter parked under a building in Nalasopara East and located his flat with the help of local residentsThe accused was arrested from his home on Friday DCP Ambure told midday He has been handed over to the Mandvi police for further investigation