Mumbai Murder: Police recover three buckets of chopped body parts from suspect’s flat

Manoj Sahani, accused of killing his live-in partner Saraswati Vaidya, cut her body into dozens of pieces and kept them in three buckets and vessels in his kitchen, police said Thursday, adding that he boiled and minced some of the pieces and dumped them secretly.Jayant Bajbale, deputy commissioner of police (zone 1) of the Mira-Bhayander Vasai Virar police, said, “Some body parts from the kitchen area have been seized and sent to Sir JJ Hospital in Mumbai for forensic analysis.” Sahani, 56, also applied an oil on the body pieces to prevent stench spreading, according to police.

Police, who are yet to ascertain Sahani’s motive, said that he had used an electric cutter to cut the body into pieces in the washroom. They have recovered the cutter.On Wednesday evening, when police broke open flat 704 in J-wing in the Geeta Aakashdeep Cooperative Housing Society, Geeta Nagar, Phase-7, they could find only Vaidya’s feet and some other body parts.Police managed to recover the other body parts after they arrested Sahani. His neighbours said they had recently seen Sahani feeding stray dogs, something that they said he never used to do before. They also claimed to have heard the sound of a spray from the flat. Police are still verifying the claims.Police said Vaidya met Sahani for the first time in 2014 at his ration shop. The couple came to stay at the flat three years ago and would not speak to neighbours, sources said. There was no number plate on their door and a police officer said not much furniture could be found in the house. Earlier they stayed in Borivali.Sahani was arrested under sections 302 (murder) and 201 (destruction of evidence) of the Indian Penal Code. Police will seek his 14-day custody from a Thane court. Police said that Sahani had admitted that there used to be instances of domestic violence between them. Their financial situation was not good, the sources said, adding that this was one of the reasons why they frequently fought with each other.