Two alert citizens helped the Mumbai police arrest an assistant sub-inspector of police for the murder of a 40-year-old woman.
According to the police, florist Gangaram Yadav, who was travelling in a taxi, saw a body being dumped from a jeep at Senapati Bapat Marg in Worli, Central Mumbai at around 8 am on Thursday.
Yadav asked the taxi driver to catch up with the fleeing jeep. He noted the vehicle number and informed the police control room, the police said.
Meanwhile, the police control had already directed the police to the area after a call from Ravi Rammaiya, a driver with the South African consulate, who saw the body on his way to office.
The police flashed the vehicle number of the jeep and within a few minutes, Assistant Police Inspector Haridwar Kale and constable P V Karne spotted the jeep and arrested the accused.
The police seized the vehicle in which a mobile phone belonging to the victim, Archana Gaikwad, was recovered.
"It was only due to the alertness of the public that the accused, Assistant Sub-Inspector Bhagwan Pakhre, was arrested within half hour of getting information," Arup Patnaik, joint commissioner of police (law and order), told reporters.
"It was unfortunate that the accused belongs to the police department," he said, adding that investigations were on to find out the motive behind the murder. The police have booked the accused for murder and destruction of evidence.
Patnaik said the 54-year-old Pakhre, attached to the L T Marg police station, was having an "illicit relationship" with the victim, who was separated from her husband.
The body showed injuries on the head, but the police are awaiting the post mortem report, he said.
