Woman, 34, who went to London for MBA found dead in locked flat in Pune's Gahunje

The decomposed body of Mugdha Avinash Deshmukh, 34, a native of Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, was found in a locked flat in the Lodha Belmondo society at Gahunje, near Pimpri-Chinchwad. Mugdha had gone to London in July 2025 to study for an MBA. The news has caused alarm in the area.

After moving to London, Mugdha spoke to her family every day. On the night of October 23, 2026, she spoke to her mother as usual. She said she was in a hurry as she had a job interview, and would hang up for now. This turned out to be her last conversation with her mother. The next day she did not answer calls from her mother, father, brother, sister, relatives or friends. Soon after, her phone was switched off.

The family made inquiries through a friend of hers who lives in London. It emerged, to their shock, that Mugdha had left London at the end of August. The family got no reply from the Indian High Commission. Her parents then checked her bank account transactions and found her credit card had been used on apps such as Zomato, Blinkit and Swiggy in India, which meant she was in India.

On October 27, the parents went to Osmanpura police station in Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar and filed a complaint of abduction. They gave police the full sequence of events and the bank account details. On this basis, police carried out a technical investigation and traced Mugdha's location to the Lodha society at Gahunje, adjoining Pune. Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar police travelled to Pune with the parents.

Shirgaon police of the Pimpri-Chinchwad Police Commissionerate were informed. At about 11 pm, police reached the society with the parents. The flat was locked from inside, so a locksmith was called to make a duplicate key. As the door opened, a foul smell came out. Mugdha's decomposed body lay on its side on the bed inside. It was the worst shock for her parents.

The investigation found that Mugdha had rented the flat in April 2026. The rent agreement has also been obtained from the flat's owner. She lived there alone, and outsiders do not easily get entry into the society. Questioning of the security guard and neighbours turned up nothing to suggest anyone visited her. Her phone history also does not show her in contact with many people. A search of the flat found nothing suspicious.

The postmortem report showed no injury on the body. Even so, the viscera have been preserved as a precaution. A preliminary assessment is that Mugdha may have died of an attack.

Devendra Chavan, senior police inspector at Shirgaon police station, said the actual cause of death will become clear only after the postmortem report and technical analysis of the mobile phone. He said Shirgaon police are continuing the investigation keeping all possibilities in mind. The Deshmukh family is in shock.