Maha: Pregnant woman found dead in Thane, accused at large

A 29-year-old pregnant woman was found dead at an apartment in a housing complex here in Dombivali in Maharashtra's Thane district, police said today.

Harshada Somawanshi, who ran a catering business along with her husband Dileep, had been missing since Tuesday after she went out to deliver an order, an official at the Manpada police station in Dombivali said.

During a search, the body was found late last night at a flat in the same complex, police said.

The victim's husband, in his complaint, has said that Niteen Patrave, the owner of the flat in which Harshada's body was found, had given his brother a business loan of Rs 1 lakh.

"Dileep's brother had returned just part of the loan and had disappeared. This was a cause of friction between Patrave and the Somawanshi family," the official said quoting the complaint.

A note, purportedly written by Patrave, has been found near the victim's body in which he has claimed responsibility for the killing, the official said.

CCTV footage of August 28, the day she went missing, shows the accused walking behind the victim in the building, he said.

"A case of murder has been registered and efforts are on to nab the accused," senior inspector Gajanan Kabdule of Manpada police station said.