A month after the murder of 70-year-old Ratanben Jain at his house in Bhandup, the Mumbai police still have no clue. Jain, who has been living alone since 1993, was found with her throat cut on April 15, 2021, and jewelery worth three and a half lakhs was missing from the house.
Despite questioning everyone he interacted with, the police were unsuccessful. The lack of CCTV cameras in the area has added to the problem.
The police knew that Jain often loaned money to people and sold khakhara, which meant she interacted with several community members. She also collected the rent from a friend who has a house in Bhandup. During the investigation, the police interrogated nearly 250 families, 30 relatives and others and announced a cash reward of 51,000 for those who provided information.
As the local police could not make any progress for two weeks, a special police team was formed under the leadership of the Zonal Deputy Commissioner of Police. However, the team was also at the end of the research rope. They started interrogating everyone whose statement they had taken earlier.
Meanwhile, a First Information Report (FIR) was filed against a person who was earlier questioned by the police in the cheating case, forcing them to revisit the case. This eventually helped them solve the ‘blind case’ of Jain’s murder – a term used to describe cases with no leads.
Meanwhile, they found that 24-year-old Imran Munne Malik, who used to work in a salon in the same area, had gone to his native place. When the police checked his background, they found that an FIR had been registered against him by a woman who accused him of defrauding him of Rs eight lakh.
Suspecting that something was wrong, the police called Dipali Raut, the woman who filed a complaint against Malik. Raut said Malik had borrowed Rs 8 lakh and was trying to return the money. A police team then tracked down Malik and interrogated him again.
After lengthy interrogation, he allegedly confessed to killing Jain, saying that he had pressured Jain into his relationship with Raut to return the money. He mentioned that he also lost his job at the salon due to the epidemic.
The police said that Malik also paid the rent when he found out that Jain kept money in the house. The police also arrested Raut, who knew about the money and who was involved in the murder.
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