He had travelled around 4,000km over the last ten days, changing his location every 12 hours to keep police at bay. However, the Madhya Pradesh resort murder accused's luck finally ran out yesterday when he was arrested from Rajasthan.
The accused, who had initially presented himself as Abhijit Patidar from Bihar, has now been identified as Hemant Bhadane, 29, from Maharashtra. Hemant was slapped by some lawyers at the court complex in Jabalpur today. He was remanded in police custody for two days and will be produced in court again on Monday.
Hemant had reportedly slit the throat of 25-year-old Shilpa Jharia at Jabalpur's Mekhla Resort on November 7 and posted his video with the body, with the message, "Bewafai Nahi Karne Ka" (do not be unfaithful), claiming that the victim had affairs with him and his business partner Jitendra Kumar.
Police said the victim's mobile phone, ATM card and cash were recovered from the accused
According to records, the victim and the accused had checked in at the resort on November 6. On November 7, the accused left the room after locking it from outside and never returned. Resort authorities broke open the door the following day to find the victim's body on the bed, with the throat and wrists slit.
Police said it was only after cross-verification of the accused's finger prints that the real identity of Abhijit Patidar as Hemant Bhadane could be established.
Eye-witness account of a taxi driver who had chauffeured Hemant and CCTV footage from the bank ATMs from where he had withdrawn cash using the victim's ATM card also helped police zero in on Hemant.
The accused claimed in court that he had committed the murder on instructions from his business partner Jitendra, who was arrested soon after the crime. Hemant had earlier also named one Sumit Patel as Jitendra's aide, who is also in police custody.
Mukesh Joga, Inspector General, Jabalpur, said that according to an employee at the resort's reception, the accused and the victim had checked in on November 6, identifying themselves as Abhijit Patidar and Rakhi Mishra, respectively. They had also forwarded copies of their Aadhar Cards to the resort receptionist's phone as proof of identity, which later turned out to be fake.
However, once the finger print expert cross-verified the details of evidence collected from the crime scene with the National Automated Fingerprint Identification System (NAFIS), the accused's identity matched with that of a hardened criminal called Hemant Bhadane, who had 37 cases filed against him in Maharashtra for various crimes, including cycle theft. That was when his real identity came to light.
The police official said the victim's mobile phone, ATM card, some jewellery and Rs 1,52,450 in cash were recovered from the accused, who had also withdrawn Rs 20,000 from the victim's bank account every day while being on the run.
In a viral video, posted after the murder, the accused had identified himself as a trader from Patna and named Jitendra as his business partner. He also claimed that the victim had borrowed around Rs 12 lakhs from Jitendra and fled to Jabalpur.
In another social media post, addressing the victim, the accused had said: "Babu heaven mein phir milenge" (dear, we'll meet again in heaven).
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