Woman, 34, missing from London found dead in locked Gahunje flat; police suspect heart attack

A 34-year-old woman from Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar was found dead in a flat in Gahunje, near Pimpri-Chinchwad, weeks after her family lost contact with her. Her parents believed she was studying in London. She had in fact returned to India at the end of August. The body was decomposed when police opened the door. It was found in the Lodha society (named Lodha Belmondo in one account), a well-known housing complex in the area.

The woman has been identified as Mugdha Avinash Deshmukh. Her father, Avinash Deshmukh, lives in Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar and is a retired engineer of government service. One account describes him as a retired chief engineer of the city's municipal corporation. Another calls him a retired city engineer. Mugdha is the eldest of three children, with a younger sister and a brother.

Mugdha took a degree from COEP in Pune and then worked at a bank. She had long wanted to do an MBA, and she saved from her salary to pay for it. She left for London in July 2025 and told her family she would take a part-time job there to meet her costs. After that she spoke to her parents and relatives every night, by phone or video call.

The last such conversation was on the night of October 23. She told her mother she was in a hurry because she had a job interview to attend, and ended the call. From the next day she did not take calls from her mother, father, brother, sister, relatives or friends. Her phone was soon switched off.

The worried family reached a friend of Mugdha's who lives in London. The friend had not spoken to her since October 22. The friend then filed a missing-person complaint with the London police. On October 26 the London police told the friend that Mugdha had left London at the end of August. She had not told her family about this even after she came back to India. The parents also wrote to the Indian High Commission in London but got no reply.

The parents then obtained her bank account details. These showed that she was in India. Her credit card was being used on online food and grocery apps, including Zomato, Blinkit and Swiggy. On October 27 the parents went to a police station in Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, said to be Osmanpura. A case of abduction was registered, and they gave the police the sequence of events and the bank details. Police there also examined her transactions and digital footprint. A technical investigation traced her location to the Lodha society in Gahunje.

The Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar police brought the parents to Pune and informed Shirgaon police under the Pimpri Chinchwad Police Commissionerate. At about 11 pm on October 28, the police and the parents reached the society. The flat was locked from inside, so a key-maker was called to cut a duplicate key. When the door opened there was a foul smell. Mugdha's decomposed body lay on its side on the bed in the bedroom.

Devendra Chavan, senior police inspector at Shirgaon police station, said the case was being examined from every angle. He said Mugdha had been living alone in the flat since August 2026. Police also said she had rented it in April 2026, and the rent agreement has been recovered from the owner. On October 21 she had told the domestic help who worked at the flat to stop coming.

Police questioned the security guard and neighbours, and none of them said anyone visited her. Her phone history does not show contact with many people. A search of the flat turned up nothing suspicious.

The post-mortem found no injury on the body. The viscera have been preserved as a precaution. Police said the preliminary assumption is that she may have died of a heart attack. The actual cause will be known only after the medical report arrives and her mobile phone is examined by forensic experts.