After six years of extra-marital affair, woman killed Mumbai bizman: Cops

Mangalore Today News Network

Mumbai, Aug 30, 2016: A 26-year-old Mumbai woman confessed on Tuesday to strangling a city businessman she was having an extra-marital affair with, police said, as investigators probed the possibility of the main suspect having accomplices.

Businessman Tilakraj Rajput’s body was found in his SUV in Mumbai’s Juhu shortly after midnight on Monday. Police said the married man was having a six-year-long affair with the suspect, Purity Pascal Coutinho alias Ronita, who wanted to end the relationship as she got hitched a year ago.

Rajput didn’t want to end the affair and the disagreement allegedly led to Ronita murdering the drunk businessman inside his car and leaving his body there, police said. She was arrested on Monday morning.

“We are interrogating her to find out if anyone helped her in any way to commit the crime,” said senior police inspector of Santacruz station Shantanu Pawar. Rajput’s family said she must have had help from outside as the businessman was much stronger than her.

Police said her detailed statement was being recorded to find out who met and contacted her before and after murder. “Her phone has been seized.”

Investigators are also questioning local residents to find out if they saw the accused at the spot. The accused woman has confessed to her crime before an officer, police added.

Police said since her marriage, Ronita wanted Rajput to stay away as she hadn’t told her husband anything about her past life. Rajput used to stay at Juhu Tara Road with his wife and two daughters in a joint family.

Police are checking for CCTV in the vicinity to see if they can spot the accused. Authorities are also going through phone call records, SMS and WhatsApp chats exchanged between the two to get a hold of the heated argument that allegedly led to the murder.

Ronita worked in a hotel and stayed in Vile Parle, said a police officer.

After killing Rajput, she left his body in the vehicle and fled from the spot, police said. A police patrol van noticed the Mahindra XUV on SV Road near Nanavati Hospital around 12.40 am. Rajput was lying in the car’s front seat. He was rushed to the Cooper hospital where he was declared dead on arrival.

Ronita is in police custody till September 3. Police say there are strangulation marks around Rajput’s neck.