‘Used man’s phone to text family, made it look like suicide’: Mumbai bizman poisoned, strangled in hotel room; Jaipur woman ‘close’ to him held

MUMBAI: A 44-year-old woman flew down from Jaipur and allegedly murdered a businessman at a hotel in Malad East, before she sent WhatsApp texts to his family from his phone that he was ending his life.Police arrested Barkat Rathod from Surat station while she was trying to flee to Jaipur. Rathod was booked under provisions of Bhartiya Nyaya Sanhita for murder.The victim, Imam Mansuri, 47, lived in Mira-Bhayander with his wife and son. Rathod was related to the family. She lived in the same belt with her husband and children.According to the police, Mansuri and Rathod were close. When Rathod's husband found out, he deserted. Police said Rathod was bitter as she had to move in with her parents in Jaipur. On May 4, Rathod flew down to Mumbai. Police said she had left her cellphone at Jaipur with an intention of not getting tracked down. She was carrying her mother's phone, but did not make any calls with it. She visited a store in Malad East that is owned by Mansuri. But he had stepped out for an errand. She waited till his return. Later that day, Mansuri's family received WhatsApp texts from his number, stating that he was going to end his life. The messages stated that he and Rathod were not in a relationship and their reputation had been tarnished. Mansuri's family was alarmed and started to look for him. His son came down to his Malad store to look for him. Eventually, he found his father's vehicle parked outside a local hotel. The hotel management confirmed that Mansuri and a burkha-clad woman had checked in. "Two Aadhaar card copies given to the hotel as proof of identity were Mansuri and his wife's. This came across as strange as Mansuri's wife wasn't with him that day. Mansuri's body was found in room 106 of the hotel the same day," said an official from Dindoshi police station. An autopsy examination subsequently showed that he had been poisoned and strangled with a rope.His phone was not in the room. CCTV footage showed a burkha clad woman leave the hotel around 3 pm.Investigators went through the WhatsApp texts that Mansuri's family had received earlier and started inquiring about Rathod. They found out that she wasn't at her parents' place in Jaipur. A police team supervised by DCP Smita Patil and senior inspector Ajay Aphale, and comprising assistant inspector Om Totavar, started to look for Rathod. They learnt she had taken a train from Mumbai but hadn't reached Jaipur. With the help of the railway police, her location was traced to Surat station and she was detained there.She was subsequently brought back to Mumbai by the police and produced before a local court.