Man held for killing woman, setting afire her body

A 50-year-old man was Monday arrested in connection with the killing of a woman, whose burnt body was found near here last week, police said.

The body of an unidentified woman was found in the forests near the Mumbai-Ahmedabad highway on January 16, they said, adding it was later identified as that of Nirmala Sachin Yadav (47).

Following the recovery, district superintendent of police Shivaji Rathod formed several teams to crack the case.

The case was solved following the arrest of one Abrar Mohammad Aslam Shaikh (50), a resident of Nallasopara in adjoining Palghar district, the police said.

The victim also hailed from the same area, they said.

The victim and the accused were both married separately and were having an extramarital affair for the last one year, the police said.

The woman was putting pressure on Shaikh to marry her, but the latter was not interested in tying the knot, they said.

As the accused, who was jobless, was not interested in marrying her, he hatched a plan to kill the woman and get rid of her, the police added.

On January 15, Shaikh and the woman met near the highway. The accused took her in the nearby forests on the pretext of discussing their marriage and hit her repeatedly with a huge stone, leading to her death, they said.

He then used clothes and dry tree leaves to set the body of fire, the police added.