Mira Road murder victim, accused were married but kept it secret due to age difference

Days after the gruesome crime in the Mira Road locality in the suburbs of Mumbai came to light, investigators and detectives have sought to uncover more details about the lives of the couple Saraswati Vaidya and Manoj Sane to piece together what went wrong between the live-in partners.

Manoj (56), who worked in a ration shop in Borivali in Mumbai, was arrested by the Nayanagar police station for murdering Saraswati (32), who he allegedly brutally killed and later chopped her body parts, disposing of them in a phased manner.

However, what startled the police is the fact that they were married in a temple a few years ago. However, they hid it from the public because of their age difference.

Read | Mira Road murder: Boiling body parts, feeding it to dogs, gory details emerge

Saraswati’s family originally hailed from Aurangabad but she and her sisters were raised in an orphanage in Ahmednagar. It has emerged that when the sisters were young their parents separated in Aurangabad and after their mother died, they were raised in an orphanage.

The three sisters of Saraswati were traced and the Nayanagar police station recorded their statements - as part of the investigation by the Mira-Bhayandar Vasai-Virar police commissionerate which spreads across several districts and the financial capital of Mumbai.

Deputy Commissioner of Police Jayant Bajbale, who is overseeing the investigation, confirmed the development. “The sisters informed the police that Saraswati and Manoj had in fact married in a temple but hid it from the public because of the age difference,” Bajbale said.

People in the locality knew that they were live-in partners.

On the other hand, Manoj’s uncle Madhukar Sane, said that his nephew had left around a decade ago. “We are not aware of her,” he said when asked about Saraswati. “I used to sometimes see him in the ration shop. It was just hello and hi. He never used to come home,” he said.

So far, the statement of Manoj’s family has not yet been recorded.

“DNA tests will be done. The sisters were in constant touch with Saraswati, therefore their statements are very important. After forensic examination, body parts will be handed over to the sisters for the last rites,” Bajbale said.

Saraswati and Manoj met around a decade ago and decided to be together, however, she used to pass him off as an uncle.

The murder was discovered by the police after neighbours of Flat No. 704 in J-Wing in Akashdeep Building in Geetanagar area of Mira Road, complained of a stench wafting out of their flat.

So far Manoj has not shown any signs of remorse, police said.

Police have said that he has been making evasive statements, namely, that Saraswati died by suicide by consuming poison and fearing police action he was trying to dispose of the body, that he is HIV-positive, that he never had any physical relation with Saraswati, and that the victim was like his daughter.

Manoj also claimed that he taught maths to Saraswati as she was planning to appear for class 10 SSC exams.

He also told the police that he planned to end his life after disposing of the body.