Mumbai murder: Man accused of brutally killing partner claims to be HIV+, police reveal the two were married

A man from western Indian city of Mumbai, accused of brutally killing his live-in partner and chopping her body off in a bid to destroy the evidence, made a shocking claim during the interrogation, saying that he never had any physical relationship with his partner as he is HIV positive, as per an Indian Express report.

The 56-year-old man allegedly dismembered the woman's body in Mumbai's Mira Road area and further boiled the body parts in a pressure cooker for disposal.

Manoj Sane had been in a relationship with Saraswati Vaidya, 32, since 2014. They were staying at a rented apartment in Geeta Nagar Phase 7 for the past three years.

Sane told Mumbai police that he was diagnosed with HIV in the year 2008 and has since then been on medication. He said that he had met with an accident and suspects to have contracted HIV during that treatment.

The couple was married, says police

The police on Friday said that the three sisters of the deceased woman informed police that Manoj Sane and Saraswati Vaidya were not live-in partners but husband and wife.

The marriage was hidden from the world because of their age difference.

"During the investigation, we found out that the victim and accused were married and they had informed the victim's sisters also, they hid this from the others because of their age difference.", said DCP Jayant Bajbale.

Sane says Vaidya committed suicide

In a new twist to the murder case, police on Friday said that Manoj Sane made a claim saying that Vaidya had died of suicide.

Police further added that Sane, during the interrogation, also claimed that he tried to dispose ofthe body fearing that he might be held responsible for her death.

He allegedly used a tree-cutter to chop off the woman's body into 20 pieces, boiled the body parts in a pressure cooker and put them in plastic bags to disposethem of by feeding them to dogs and other animals. Police said that over 12 to 13 pieces of the woman's body were recovered from the site.

It is suspected that the murder may have taken place on June 4. Though the exact cause is yet to be ascertained, neighbours told the police that the couple fought quite often.

“In the preliminary inquiry, it seems that the accused, in order to destroy the evidence, chopped the body in pieces. We nabbed the accused while he was trying to leave the building. We are further interrogating him,” said Jayant Bajbale, Deputy Commissioner of Police.

"We believe that Sahani cut the woman’s body into pieces so as to make it easy for him to dispose them of," Bajbale added.

(With inputs from agencies)

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