Colleague held for Reliance worker146;s murder

Reliance employee Anandita Mishra Goswami was murdered by a colleague who had wanted a romantic liaison with her and had been snubbed...

Reliance employee Anandita Mishra Goswami was murdered by a colleague who had wanted a romantic liaison with her and had been snubbed, the police said.

A week after Goswami was stabbed to death outside Dhirubai Ambani Knowledge City DAKC at Koparkhairne, the Turbhe police arrested her colleague Jacob Simon Pinto. Goswami was divorced. Pinto is married.

8220;Pinto and Goswami worked in the same department before she was promoted. Pinto had proposed to her but she refused, her only concern being her five-year-old daughter who is ill. The pent-up anger over a spate of rejections may have made him kill her,8221; said Deputy Commissioner of Police, Zone I, Navi Mumbai, R D Shinde.

Pinto had also barged into Goswami8217;s home a couple of months ago and tried to slash her wrists. 8220;Anandita was terrified of him. He would often threaten to kill her and us. She had even told me to be careful while stepping out of the house,8221; said Poonam Goswami, Anandita8217;s mother.

After registering a murder case, the Turbhe police had visited DAKC to garner more information about Goswami8217;s work and colleagues. 8220;We met all her colleagues but one was missing from the team. That8217;s how Pinto became the suspect. In the course of the investigation we also learnt that Goswami had complained about Pinto to her seniors, alleging that he was harassing her,8221; said Shinde.

The search for Pinto took the investigating team from Kamothe in Sangli to Kolhapur before finally ending at Vashi where they caught him on Wednesday evening.

The police surmised that Jacob was at his brother8217;s house at Kamothe in Sangli. A team headed by police inspector Arvind Patil, however, did not find him there.

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Relatives revealed that Pinto and his wife were on a pilgrimage to Chennai, Bangalore and Velankanni. The Tamil Nadu Police were notified but their search in Velankanni also proved fruitless.

The team also continued their chase in Kolhapur based on a tip-off that Pinto had headed there but he was not found there either. Finally, a second tip-off led the police to Vashi railway station where Pinto was nabbed.