The haste to wash his hands off a heinous crime proved costly for 34-year-old architect Santosh Bhukan.

Man kills lover, hides body in pit

The haste to wash his hands off a heinous crime proved costly for 34-year-old architect Santosh Bhukan.

Bhukan was in an extra-marital relationship with Vaishali Kadam (32), who worked as a receptionist at his firm.
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In his confession, Bhukan said that annoyed by her incessant demands to marry him, he decided to kill her.

On August 10, Bhukan took Kadam to his farmhouse at Malshiras in Purandar. While on their way, Bhukan slipped a powerful sedative in Kadam's cold drink.
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By the time they reached the farmhouse, Kadam was well under the influence of the sedative. He then killed her by strangling her.

Vaishali Kadam

Investigating officer YG Nikam, Airport police station, said, "He dumped her body in a pit that was dug for fitting a bathtub. He covered the body with layers of sand, gravel and cement.

To keep her family members in the dark, Bhukan started sending SMSes from Kadam's cell phone, citing different reasons for her disappearance.
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But since the reasons cited in the messages to Kadam's father and husband were different, it made them suspicious. Her father later filed a missing complaint on August 13."

One such SMS sent to her sister Manisha Thorat on August 14 read, "I am committing suicide as I am suffering from a terminal illness."

u00a0Based on the complaint filed by Kadam's sister, cops arrested Bhukan on Thursday night. After a detailed interrogation, he confessed to the crime.

Nikam added, "We recovered Kadam's body yesterday. We had earlier charged him with section 364 for abduction with a motive to murder.

We will now charge him with section 302 IPC for murder and 201 for disappearance of evidence of offense."

Bhukan was produced before the court and was remanded to police custody until September 1. Vaishali's body was sent to Sassoon Hospital for post mortem.