Vanadongri woman's death was murder, not electrocution; electrician held after trace to Jalgaon

What first looked like a household accident in Vanadongri has turned out to be a killing. Nagpur police say they cracked the case within a few hours of the body being found, after a preliminary post-mortem report showed the woman had not died of electric shock. An electrician, said to be her partner of many years, has been arrested from Jalgaon.

The dead woman is Kavita Ganesh Pimpalshende, 38, who lived at Matoshree Layout in Matoshrinagar, under the MIDC police station limits. She was found dead at her home at about 8 am on Monday. A heater in the kitchen had water heating on it, and her body bore marks that looked like burns from an electric current. Police therefore suspected electrocution and registered an accidental death case.

The picture changed when the doctors who performed the post-mortem concluded that Kavita had died of a heavy blow to the head. Police say the burns were deliberately caused with the heater so that the death would pass as an electrocution, and the water was put on the heater to complete the picture. A murder investigation was then begun.

The accused is Javed Shaikh Shahid Manyar, 33, an electrician from Shiv Colony. The filings differ on where that colony is: one account places it in Jalgaon, the other in Jalna. Police allege that his trade helped him stage the scene.

Investigators first looked at Kavita's husband, Ganesh, who works as a security guard. He had left for his native village in Bhandara on Saturday because of his job, and questioning turned up nothing suspicious. Police then went through the call detail records of Kavita's mobile phone and found that most of her calls had been made to Javed. His phone location at the time of the incident was in Vanadongri, while on Monday evening it was traced to Jalgaon.

A team led by Police Inspector Baburao Raut, working under the guidance of Deputy Commissioner of Police (Detection) S. Hrishikesh Reddy, travelled to Jalgaon and picked Javed up from his home. Reports spell the DCP's first name differently, as Hrishikesh and Rushikesh.

The matter came to light on Monday morning when Ganesh phoned Kavita and got no answer. He then called a relative and asked that the children be sent to the house. When they arrived, they found their mother lifeless.

A murder case has been registered on the complaint of Assistant Police Inspector Gajanan Kothewad. Javed was produced in court on Tuesday, and the court sent him to police custody until October 17.

Questioning has given police a fuller account of the relationship. Kavita worked at a mess, and her sister is married in Jalgaon. Kavita and Javed had been in a relationship for 15 years, and Javed used to come to Nagpur whenever her husband was away. For some time, however, he had been ignoring her.

According to police, Javed arrived in Nagpur on Sunday, a day after Ganesh left for his village. Kavita told relatives she would be busy with work and left her two children at a relative's house. She pressed Javed to marry her, but he wanted to keep his distance. The two quarrelled over this on Sunday and again on Monday morning, and Javed is alleged to have struck her on the head with a heavy object, killing her. Police also say the dispute over the relationship, and fear that it would be exposed, lay behind the crime. Further investigation is on.