Godown murder case solved: Dispute over food bill led to murder of a man in Panvel

Navi Mumbai: Nearly nine days after a decomposed body of a man was found behind Orion Mall in Panvel, the Navi Mumbai crime branch traced the accused, identified as Dhiraj Raju Verma, 27, who confessed to committing the murder, said the police. The investigation revealed that the victim was killed for not paying Verma’s food bill at a restaurant.
Cracking the case was a big challenge for the investigators as the identity of the victim was unknown. “With no other identification marks or documents, we were solely dependent on technical means to solve the case,” said an officer.
On September 16, the decomposed body of the man in his thirties was found in a dilapidated godown behind Orion mall in Panvel. The investigation into the murder case began after forensic evidence led to strangulation marks being found on the neck. The police registered an FIR under 103(1) (punishment for murder) of BNS and started tracing the accused. “There were no valuables or documents on the body which would have helped us to identify the victim. The only shred of evidence was the t-shirt worn by the victim which belonged to a tutorial institute,” said assistant commissioner of police (crime branch) Ajay Landge. But it yielded no result in the investigation. With no specific date as to when the murder was committed, the officers then started tracing numerous CCTVs along the six roads leading to the godown where the body was found. Police scanned through a week of video footage. “The incident was found to have occurred on September 13. We saw that the victim had entered the godown along with a man. We learnt that the victim was a labourer,” said an officer.
The police then used many resources and traced Verma in Panvel. “He hails from Satna in Madhya Pradesh and was living in Koliwada in Panvel,” added the officer.
The police then quizzed Verma, who confessed to killing the labourer. “The accused and the labourer were not known to one another. On September 13, they met at a country liquor bar and after a brief chit-chat, they decided to go out to eat at a restaurant. Since Verma was short of cash, he asked the labourer to pay for his food bill and he agreed. However, the labourer failed to pay the money at the restaurant. Which led the owner of the eatery to lash out at Verma in front of customers. This angered him. Both were to go their separate ways but decided to take a nap at the godown. While lying, the discussion about non-payment came up and turned into an ugly fight. Verma then strangulated the victim with a cloth belt which was found discarded at the spot,” said the officer.