A 23-year-old resident of Lalbagh’s Ibrahim Kasam building killed his 55-year-old mother, chopped off her limbs and hid her in the house for months. Kalchowki police, who arrested the woman on Wednesday, found her mother’s decomposed torso in a plastic snow bag in a cupboard and her organs in a water drum in the bathroom.
According to the police, the deceased Veena Prakash Jain was last seen alive by a neighbor on December 26. Accused murderer Rimple Jain lived with her and sprayed perfume and room freshener after the murder for bad smell. Class 12 dropout Rimple lost his father nearly 20 years ago.
On Tuesday evening, the wife of the victim’s brother Suresh Porwal informed the Kalachowkie police that Veena had been missing for months and that she and her husband had last met on November 26 the previous year. Residents of Veena’s building used to tell Porwal that they are not seen Veena for a long time and that her house was smelling too nasty.
On Tuesday when Parwal’s wife finally went to Veena’s home, no one answered the doorbell. Hearing the stench, she then called relatives for help. A police official said, “They broke the door and found Rimple in the room, which was dirty. “Inside the room the smell was even stronger, and it looked like Rimple hadn’t showered for a long time.”
When the relatives ask Rimple where her mother is, she tells them that she is sleeping and points to her bed. “However, when Porwal’s wife pulled the blanket, they found a pillow underneath,” the police officer said. “When they questioned Rimple again, she told them that her mother had gone to Kanpur. This and the stench combined, they suspected that something was seriously wrong and took Rimple to the police station.”
After police inspector Sudarshan Chavan went to the building with two constables to search in the house, they found the torso and head wrapped in a saree and stuffed in a polythene bag and his organs in a steel drum in the bathroom. The police team also found an electric marble cutter and a sickle in the house and suspected that the items could have been used to cut off the limbs from Veena’s body.
“The body parts were almost completely decomposed and must have been there for months. We called a team of forensic experts from Kalina, doctors from KEM Hospital, and fingerprint experts,” said Dr Pravin Munde, DCP Zone IV.
Rimple, however, claimed to the police that her mother fell from the first floor while standing in the common passage on December 27 and was carried by two employees of a hotel on the ground floor. The police questioned the employees who confirmed this: they also said that Veena was alive at the time but when they wanted to take her to the hospital, she told them to take her to her house.
Another police officer claims that Rimple has confessed to killing her mother and dismembering the body but has yet to reveal the motive. A police officer said, “It seems that the mother and daughter had constant petty quarrels, and after one such, Rimple might have killed her mother,” adding that the 23-year-old might have taken advantage of the commotion caused by the renovation work. Cut the body with the marble cutter in the building. The officer also informed that after the alleged murder, the accused mostly ordered food from outside and drank bottled water.
Rimple was produced before the Mazagaon Metropolitan Magistrate’s Court, where he has been remanded in police custody till March 20.