Mira Road murder: Killer went to mall to buy knives to chop wife's body

Mumbai: Mira Road witnessed a case of a horrific murder on Tuesday when 36-year-old Girish Khote killed his wife Madhumanti and went on to chop her body into pieces. Girish used to stay on the 14th floor of Nakshatra Tower at Golden Nest in Mira Road, along with his wife and young son. Further details about the murder emerged after police reached his flat and arrested Girish. The man also showed officers the body parts that he had stuffed into the fridge.

Recently married

Girish and his wife Madhumanti got married in 2010. His wife was a French national her mother was French and her father was Indian. While her mother had died, Madhumanti (32) would get money from her grandmother who lived in France. Police said his wife also owned some shops and flats at Charni Road after she sold one of the homes there, the couple bought the flat at Nakshatra and moved in seven months ago.

Both of them didn't work, but managed expenses using the money the wife got from her grandmother and the rent generated by the properties at Charni Road. The couple also have a son, who is two-and-half-years of age. Girish used to drive an auto rickshaw and would do odd jobs at a hotel.

How it unfolded

For the past one-and-a-half years, the couple had been having problems. Girish had no job and had taken to alcohol. He had wanted to open a hotel of his own and had demanded money from his wife who had refused him. "She had recently told him that she had started hating him and this country and was fed up of the marriage," said an officer from the Mira Road police station. Police suspect the couple might have fought and Girish killed her in a fit of rage. After coming to his senses, he realised he had to dispose the body.

He immediately called up a cousin Nitin Madre and went with him to a nearby mall where he bought a fresh set of knives, cotton, duct tape, napkin, detergent and other cleaning material. He then sent Madre away this was on Tuesday afternoon around 2.30 pm. At night around 9 pm, Madre got a call from Girish, who confessed to having killed his wife.

"He told me to come an hour later, as I wouldn't be able to bear the sight of the body," said his cousin. Madre immediately informed the Mira Road police. When the police team reached his flat, Girish was found sitting on the bed, with his wife's chopped off legs wrapped and packed neatly with duct tape, beside him. But police found only a couple of spots of blood on the wall and surprisingly, no stench of the dead body.

This is when Girish led them to the fridge, in which he had stuffed the remaining parts of his wife's body. The head and the torso had been neatly wrapped into plastic bags and bound by duct tape. The police collected all the three parts and sent it for a post-mortem at the Bhagwati Hospital in Borivli. "Khote has confessed to the murder, but has lost all his senses. He has just been spouting nonsense. His cousin informed us in time, otherwise he would've disposed off the body," said Dinkar Pingle, senior police inspector of Mira Road police station.

At the time of the murder the couple's son was not at home. "Khote had sent their son to his mother's house in Thane," Ingle added. The couple, according to Khote's brother, fought regularly. Khote was presented before the court and has been remanded to police custody for 12 days.