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Diamond merchant murdered; actress questioned

Financial motive, woman emerge as key angles in murder of businessman
Last Updated 09 December 2018, 13:46 IST

A clear financial dispute and affection towards a lady have emerged as the key motive behind the ghastly murder of diamond merchant and antique dealer Rajesh Udani.

So far, the Mumbai police have questioned over 50 persons which include several women including some small-time actress and bar girls.

On Sunday, popular actress Devoleena Bhattacharjee, known for her role Gopi Bahu was questioned again by the Pant Nagar police station.

The case is being directly supervised by Additional Commissioner of Police Laxmi Gautam and Deputy Commissioner of Police Akhilesh Singh.

"My client was called to the police station, her statement was recorded and she is cooperating with police," Devoleena's lawyer Falguni Brahmbhatt said.

According to police, two persons - a BJP worker Sachin Pawar (37) and his friend Deepak Pawar (27), a suspended Local Arms constable, who also ran a gym at Ghatkopar, have been booked for the sensational murder.

On Friday, Deepak was arrested on charges of a rape case and is under custody.

On Saturday, Sachin, who is a former PA of Maharashtra Housing Minister Prakash Mehta, was arrested and on Sunday he was produced before a Magistrate court, which remanded him to police custody till 14 December.

The telephone number of Devoleena (28) was found in the call records of the Ghatkopar-based Udani (57), who ran a jewellery firm, Mriya Concept & Design. He was also into antiques and reality.

Udani went missing on 27 November and his body was found in Panvel in neighbouring Raigad district. He is survived by mother, wife, son and daughter.

The post-mortem was conducted at the government-run Sir JJ Hospital at Byculla, which confirmed strangulation and smother.

He was lured into a trap with the help of a bar girl.

The two motives that police is working is a financial dispute between Sachin and Udani and a call data records reveal that they were frequently in touch with each other. Besides, the businessman also had "wrong intentions' on a lady friend of the main suspect.

However, it is not yet clear who this lady friend is.

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(Published 09 December 2018, 12:55 IST)

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