Navi Mumbai: Ulwe police have arrested a former policeman on the suspicion of his alleged involvement in a case where a woman, Reshma More (35), killed her husband, Sachin More (40), allegedly to get rid of him as she was having an affair with the suspect. Her 16-year-old son and an auto driver, Prathamesh Mhatre (36), a resident of Agroli village, Belapur, helped her dispose of the body after committing the crime on Feb 22, according to police.
Arjun Rajane, senior inspector of Ulwe police station, said that the suspect in the murder of Sachin More was traced to Devgad in Sindhudurg district late Thursday night and arrested early Friday morning. He has been identified as Rohit Temkar (26), a resident of Agroli village, Belapur. Temkar connived with the key accused, Reshma, by providing her with sedative pills to mix in the juice she gave to Sachin, making him semi-conscious, and then she killed him. First, she tried to strangle him, but as he was still breathing, she smothered him while on the way in Mhatre’s auto rickshaw to dispose of his body. Reshma and Mhatre were arrested on Feb 26 afternoon after the post-mortem report revealed smothering as the cause of Sachin’s death and finding of strangulation marks on his neck. The CCTV camera surveillance on the streets and the route used by the accused for travelling in the auto rickshaw provided vital leads to pin them down.
Inspector Rajane said, “The arrested accused, Rohit Temkar, was zeroed in as a suspect in the murder case as the call data record of Reshma and Temkar revealed that they used to talk over mobile for several hours daily, even past midnight. Hence, an extramarital affair was a possibility. Also, after the murder, Temkar switched off his mobile. However, using technical expertise, we traced him to Sindhudurg district.”
Rajane said Temkar was recruited in the Mumbai Police as a constable on compassionate grounds. But during his police training, he was suspended for indiscipline in 2018 as he became an alcoholic, Rajane said. He later left his police job. Temkar and Reshma got into a relationship as they both worked at a departmental store in Navi Mumbai. While Reshma claimed that she killed Sachin as he was sexually harassing her for the past more than 15 years of their marriage, the technical evidence suggests the murder motive seems to be Reshma’s extramarital affair with Temkar, inspector Rajane said. The auto driver, Prathamesh Mhatre, helped in the crime as he was Temkar’s friend, residing in the same locality and was a common friend with Reshma. Panvel court on Saturday remanded Temkar to police custody till March 5. Reshma and Mhatre were earlier remanded to police custody till March 5, and Reshma’s teenage son is at a juvenile shelter home at Karjat.