Solving crime: How a missing person’s application helped Mumbai police solve case of a woman’s torso found in Chembur lake

While the police did not find any such registered missing persons case, a Bhoiwada police official informed them that such an application had been received.

The police then contacted the woman who had lodged a complaint that her sister Kanta Shetty (31), a fashion designer, had been missing for several days. Shetty’s husband had died by suicide and the couple had a son. The police used the family’s help and DNA analysis to confirm that the body found at Charai Lake was Kanta’s.

Her sister Suhasini told the police that she suspected the role of a caterer at Chembur Gymkhana, Prabhakar Shetty, 36. She also informed the police that her sister and Prabhakar were having an affair after the duo met on a train ride from Mangaluru to Mumbai. Kanta had been asking Prabhakar to marry him but he was engaged to another woman due to which there were frequent fights between the couple.

The Chembur police then detained Prabhakar for questioning and eventually arrested him on the charge of murdering Kanta. The police alleged that Prabhakar had strangled Kanta at the staff quarters on the night of October 29 when he had taken an off from work. He had hidden a knife in the bathroom and took her inside, the police said.

He allegedly strangled her there and later chopped her body in the bathroom, below a running tap, in order to avoid blood marks. He stuffed her head, torso and limbs in three separate plastic bags, the police alleged.

He then took an auto and threw the bag containing the head at Chembur Shell Colony, the one with the torso at Charai Lake and the one with limbs at Trombay jetty, the police said. The second bag with the torso was found first, following which the police began their probe and the case unravelled.