2 held for murder in Santa Cruz

MUMBAI: The crime branch arrested two accused on Tuesday in the sensational murder case of 56-year-old Aarti Chhablani who was killed at her posh residence in Santa Cruz (W) last week.
Chhablani was found dead inside her bedroom by one of her domestic helps, Devendra Upadhyay, on August 17. According to the police, one of the accused, Raju Paswan, worked with the Chhablanis occasionally when there was a family function."When her maid went on leave, Chhablani contacted Paswan. But he recommended his friend, Rajkumar Nisad, and introduced him as Sunil Yadav. They had intended to rob the Chhablanis," said a police officer.
Upadhyay had been working with the family for the past 10 years. Nisad started working with the household on August 5, while Paswan was employed in the neighbourhood. On the day of the incident, Nisad allegedly offered a chocolate laced with sleeping pills to Upadhyay, who fell unconscious after eating it. Nisad then dragged him to the kitchen and called Paswan. Chhablani was in another room and was unaware of the goings on, the police said.
When Paswan arrived, Chhablani asked Nisad to give him tea. She also asked if Upadhyay had his lunch, but Nisad told her that he was sleeping. She then retired to the bedroom. Chhablani spoke her relative over the phone around 4 pm and then went off to sleep. The accused then got into her bedroom and attacked her. They also tied her legs.
Meanwhile, a resident of the building rang up Chhablani and asked for Upadhyay as she wanted to use Chhablanis' kitchen. Nisad took the call and told her to call again after some time. The residence had good relations with the deceased and her mixer was not working so she wanted to ask Devendra to get her work done in Chhablani's kitchen.
The accused panicked and tried to break the locker in the house. When the resident called again, Nisad told her that Upadhyay was busy so she should call after some time. The duo then fled with whatever they found fearing that the residence would directly come to the house.
The crime branch unit-9 in-charge Sanjay Satardekar instructed his officers Sagar Shivalkar, Jayraj Ranaware and Ashok Sawant to trace the person who had recommended Nisad to the family, which led the cops to the accused. "Before escaping the accused had took deceased diary and phone along with them where she had written their numbers so that no one can traced them" said an officer.