Woman's body found in water drum: 9 years later, Thane court acquits bank staffer, says no proof he murdered her

More than nine years after a woman's body was found in a water drum in Thane, three months after she went missing, a sessions court this week acquitted the main accused in the case, a private bank staffer, citing lack of evidence.
Neha Pawar had gone missing in July 2016, following which her father filed a complaint with the Mumbra police station in Thane district. The complaint said that Pawar, who worked at the Kurla branch of a private bank, had not returned home from work. Nearly three months later, the owner of a flat in the same neighbourhood as the victim's, called the police about a foul smell emanating from a room she had given on rent to a man named Vijaykumar Bharati.
The police broke open the door and found Pawar's body in a water drum. Bharati was booked on charges of murder. The police claimed that he knew Pawar and had killed her over her refusal to marry him following frequent quarrels between them.
During the trial, witnesses, including people staying in the neighbourhood and Pawar's mother, were examined.
The court, however, said that there was no proof to show that it was Bharati who had murdered Pawar, even though the police claimed that the body was found in a room that he used to stay on rent.
'…it cannot be said that the chain of circumstances pointing to the accused being perpetrator of the crime has been made out, and in such circumstances, even if it is taken that the dead body was found in the room where the accused was residing, and the victim was on visiting terms with the accused, that by itself would not be sufficient to conclude that the prosecution has been successful in bringing home the guilt of the accused, although a finger of suspicion can be raised towards him,' Thane sessions judge S B Agarwal said in the order passed on Wednesday.
The court noted that the case was entirely based on circumstantial evidence, but there was no cogent proof about the accused's involvement.

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