22-year-old was crushed to death with boulder by friend-turned-foe; a few days later, on January 29, his decomposed body was found in a construction pit near the truck terminal, not far from his locality
The crime scene in Rabale where the body of the deceased was discovered
A 22-year-old man, Manoj Sabhajeet Bind, a resident of Yadav Nagar slum in Rabale, went missing in the early hours of January 21. A few days later, on January 29, his decomposed body was found in a construction pit near the truck terminal, not far from his locality. The postmortem report and subsequent investigation revealed that Manoj was crushed to death by a massive boulder weighing over 100 kg, ruling out suicide and indicating foul play.
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Due to the state of decomposition, the body was initially unidentifiable, leaving police struggling for days to determine the victim’s identity. As investigators debated whether to send the body for DNA testing or check missing person reports, they stumbled upon a crucial clue—a small piece of yellow fabric near
the body.
Manoj Sabhajeet Bind, the deceased
“It looked like a cutout from a T-shirt. That was all we had, so we started asking locals if they had seen anyone wearing a yellow T-shirt 8–9 days ago,” said an official from the Crime Branch Unit 1 of Navi Mumbai police.
Eventually, the victim’s mother recognised the fabric and confirmed it was her son's. She had been waiting for his return after he told her he was going to the public toilet at 12.15 am on January 21, but he never came back. Though she had filed a missing person report with Rabale MIDC police, the advanced decomposition meant the body did not match the photograph attached to the report.
A screen grab of footage of the accused, Deepak Bulleten Bind, withdrawing money from an ATM
With no CCTV cameras in Yadav Nagar to track Manoj’s movements and his phone, wallet and debit cards missing, police turned to his bank transactions. They discovered that Rs 21,000 had been withdrawn from his account at an ATM.
The following day, an official from Rabale MIDC police informed the team that Manoj had previously visited the station to report a theft, claiming a “friend” had used his debit card to withdraw money without his consent. However, no FIR was registered, as Manoj left the station after an argument with an unidentified person.
“Who usually has access to someone’s ATM PIN? It’s either family or close friends. In this case, the family had no idea about Manoj’s, whereabouts, let alone his PIN. That left us with his two close friends,” said the official.
“One of them even assisted us after the missing person report was filed. He joined the search for Manoj, likely to avoid suspicion. By then, we had our suspect—but no evidence to prove it.”
To gather evidence, a police team was stationed in Yadav Nagar for over five days, closely monitoring the suspect’s movements.
During this time, police secured CCTV footage from the ATM, where a man was seen withdrawing money. He was wearing a cap, covering his face with a handkerchief, barefoot, and wearing a T-shirt inside out.
“He left nothing that could reveal his identity. Even the kada (bangle) he always wore and the sacred thread around his wrist were removed, which left us confused. We questioned whether he was the suspect or if we were on the wrong track,” said the official.
The second breakthrough in the case came from Manoj’s digital records.
“Based on the time of death in the postmortem report, we were surprised to find a message Manoj had sent to one of his friends saying, ‘Me kuchh din ke liye bahar ja reha hoon (I am going out for some days)’, essentially telling him not to look for him. We checked his previous messages and noticed differences in his texting style.
“We instructed one of our officers to subtly ask the suspect to type a message and compared it. It matched. Manoj would type ‘raha,’ while the suspect typed ‘reha,’ among other subtle differences,” an official reported.
Police then traced the suspect’s mobile tower location to the same area from which Manoj had sent his last text message, providing crucial evidence that led to his detention.
During interrogation, the suspect confessed to killing Manoj, citing the latter’s intention to report the theft as the motive.
“He was agitated that his reputation in the locality would be permanently damaged, leading to isolation. This is when the entire plan to murder Manoj was hatched,” said the official.The motive was further confirmed by a statement from a friend of the accused, who also resides in the same area.
The accused were identified as Deepak Bulleten Bind, 20, and Deepak Gaud, 24. Gaud had lent a sum of money to the victim, which was not repaid, providing another motive for the crime.
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