In March 2006, a constable from Malabar Hill police station found the dismembered body of a man, wrapped in a blood-stained bed sheet and plastic paper, in the sea behind Raj Bhavan in south Mumbai. The body was identified and the police had the names of the suspects but the accused could not be traced. With the probe hitting a dead end, the case turned cold – until a tip-off 13 years later. It all began at around 8 am on March 6, 2006, when State Reserve Police Constable Sarjerao Patil called Constable Dattatraya Lad, who was on duty at the lower gate of Raj Bhavan and showed him a “bundle-like” object in the sea. It was a body with an ‘OM’ tattoo on its head. The police retrieved the body and a complaint was registered. The Malabar Hill police then went through the missing persons’ information and sought help from other police stations along Mumbai’s coast to identify the victim. They also released details of the body and a photograph in the media. Soon, two men approached the police and identified the body as that of their brother-in-law Ransingh alias Karan Singh Valmiki. During the initial probe, Ransingh’s brothers-in-law said they suspected Satpal alias Chhanga Valmiki and his brothers, leading the police to visit their native places. However, they failed to locate the accused, and with no further leads cropping up, the police filed a closure report. The magistrate accepted the report and the case turned cold. Thirteen years later, in October 2019, the police were issuing non-bailable warrants and summoning known criminals to detain or extern them ahead of the Assembly elections when they got a lead that the accused in the 2006 case had become ‘overconfident’, were regularly visiting their native places and that one of them had arrived in Faridabad, Haryana with his wife. A special team of officials was immediately dispatched. They arrested Satpal from Krishna Colony in Faridabad and he gave them co-accused Tejpal alias Babaji’s address in Malviya Nagar, Delhi. The duo were booked on charges of murder, common intention and destruction of evidence under the Indian Penal Code. During the probe, the police learnt that there was a fight between the deceased, Satpal, Tejpal and their three brothers, who were staying in Mumbai, as they refused to return the money he had lent them. The police said the two killed Ransingh, chopped and dumped his body in the sea and fled Mumbai. The deceased was working as a sweeper at a building in the Malabar Hill area and had arrived in Mumbai in 2005 as a substitute for accused Veerpal, who had to go to his native place in UP. The prosecution claimed that as the owner of the building was satisfied with Ransingh’s work and decided to continue with him, Veerpal blamed him for his job loss. In December 2021, while rejecting Satpal and Tejpal’s bail plea, Sessions Court judge G B Gurao noted that the accused used to gather near the building where the deceased was working and they were never seen after he went missing and instead left Mumbai. The court said there was “prima facie involvement” of the accused in the “serious” crime and there was every possibility they would abscond if released on bail, therefore relief could not be granted to them.
