Three held for killing popular paan shopowner’s son in Mumbai

Shah and Patel were both from Narkatiaganj region in Bihar while Sahni was a resident of Nalasopara, in the Mumbai metropolitan region.

The police identified Shah with the help of CCTV footage from Bandra and traced him to his village Kahunia in Narkatiaganj. Officers dressed as civilians nabbed Shah with the help of the Bihar police.

The accused informed the police about the other two accused. All three accused were seen with the victim on CCTV footage from Bandra on the day of his disappearance.

“The three accused kept frequenting Bandra as one of them had a brother who worked in the area as a security guard. They had met the victim and befriended him. They had noticed that Chowrasia wore a lot gold and hatched a plan to kill him and rob his gold ornaments,” said Vilas Sanap, senior inspector at Kashimira police station.

On November 22, the day the victim disappeared from Bandra, the accused had called him for a party. The four had drinks at Zumba bar in Bandra. Chowrasia had gone to his father’s shop in the afternoon and left saying he was going out to eat.

According to the police, after having drinks at the bar, the three accused took a taxi to the Dahisar check naka and took Chowrasia along.

They then took an auto and alighted near Versova bridge, where they took the victim, already intoxicated, to a nearby shrubbery on the pretext of answering nature’s call.

They then bashed the victim’s head with a stone and fled with three gold chains, one gold and one silver ring. Police have not yet been able to recover the jewellery.

The three have been remanded to police custody for six days by a Thane court. They have been booked for murder and other offences. The victim was a resident of Kumbharwada, Grant Road. His body was found the next day in Ghodbunder, Versova near Mira Bhayander.

mumbai.newsline@expressindia.com