Pune Murder Case: Auto Rickshaw Driver Who Strangled Live-In Partner Arrested in Solapur

The accused auto-rickshaw driver who killed his live-in partner on September 11 was arrested from Solapur by the Pimpri Chinchwad Police. The accused Vinayak Anil Awle (age 35, Res. MM Chowk, Kalewadi) allegedly strangled his live-in partner Shivani Somnath Supekar (age 28, resident of Vadgaon Maval) to death and had abandoned the body in a auto rickshaw and left the vehicle outside the residence of the victim's mother in Jagtapnagar, Thergaon and was on the run since then.

According to the police, the Wakad police were investigating the case and while verifying the owner of the vehicle by the registration number it came to light that the auto rickshaw was leased out to the accused  Vinayak Awle by the owner. Accordingly, a police team visited Vinayak’s residence and found out that he was not there. Two teams of the Wakad police were dispatched in search of the accused. The technical analysis of the mobile of the accused revealed that the accused was travelling towards Bijapur in Karnataka accordingly the police laid a trap at the Solapur Railway Station and arrested Vinayak.

Further investigations revealed that Vinayak and Shivani first met each other when Shivani had hired Vinayak’s auto rickshaw a few months back. The meeting turned into love and the couple decided to move into a live-in relationship as Shivani was a widow and Vinayak was not living with his wife. The couple had been living together for the past two months

Later Vinayak started suspecting Shivani’s character and they had multiple arguments over this. On September 11 the accused and the deceased had a similar dispute and Vinayak in a fit of rage strangled Shivani to death abandoned her body in the auto rickshaw and fled the spot.

Sharda Naveen Joshi  (age 35, Res. Ganeshnagar Colony, Bopkhel) who is the mother of the deceased has filed a complaint at the Wakad Police Station.

The police have arrested the accused and a murder case has been filed against him. Assistant Police Inspector Arjun Pawar of the Wakad police station is further investigating the case.