Prabhavati, 56, was alone in her car while her husband ran an errand when Ashok Konar approached her on the pretext of parking the car a little ahead on the road
Accused Ashok Kumar Konar. Pic/ Rajesh Gupta
Navi Mumbai police have claimed to have solved the gruesome daylight murder of a 56-year-old woman with the arrest of a robber who shot the woman and fled with her mangalsutra and earrings on Monday. Ulwe resident, Ashok Kumar Konar, 42, a driver, was arrested from Kharghar on Thursday and remanded to police custody till March 9. Police found that he had been driving a stolen vehicle and had a few car-theft cases registered against him.
On Monday, Uran resident Balkrishna Bhagat, 63, came to Ulwe’s Sector 19 with his wife Prabhavati. Around 2.15 pm, the couple reached Bank of Maharashtra where Bhagat had some work. He asked Prabhavati to wait outside in the car while he finished his errand. To keep the car’s AC on, he left the car keys in the ignition. All the while, the couple’s movements were being monitored by a man standing nearby.
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Ashok Kumar Konar saw Prabhavati sitting alone in the car. He approached her and said that the car needed to be parked a little ahead. Prabhavati agreed and let him in. Konar drove her 500 metres away from the bank towards Wahal. On the other hand, when Bhagat emerged from the bank, the car and his wife were nowhere to be found. He promptly alerted his son, who in turn alerted the police.
Konar and Prabhavati had reached Ulwe’s Sector 23. He stopped the car at a secluded spot, whipped out a gun and demanded Prabhavati give up all her gold ornaments. Prabhavati resisted and Konar shot her in the chest. He quickly collected her gold mangalsutra and earrings, and went back towards the Bank of Maharashtra where he had parked his stolen car. His activity near the bank and the registration number of this car — belonging to a Kharghar-based professor — were all captured by CCTV cameras.
Soon after, passersby at Sector 23 noticed a woman lying in a pool of blood in a car and called the cops. The NRI Coastal police and Bhagat rushed to the spot and took Prabhavati to Apollo Hospital in Belapur. She was declared dead on arrival. A special team comprising officers from Navi Mumbai’s two zones and the Crime Branch was formed. It scanned the CCTV footage from the bank and nearby shops, began tracking the stolen car’s registration number and nabbed Konar from Kharghar on Thursday. Illustration/Uday Mohite
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