80-year-old’s Mumbai woman’s murder solved; brother and his wife held

Mumbai: Andheri police arrested Joseph Thomas Coelho, 65, and his wife Maria, 63, from Andheri (East) Marol Pipeline locality for allegedly killing Coelho's 80-year-old sister, Blance James Sequeira, and dumping her body in a five-feet storm water drain, before filing a false missing complaint with Sahar police on January 10.The case came to light on April 24 when sanitation workers from the BMC opened the drain's manhole for cleaning chokes ahead of the monsoon and found decomposed skeletal remains of a woman. They alerted Andheri police.Police said the case was solved within 24 hours after Andheri police circulated photos of the dead woman on the police WhatsApp group in the city. "After analysing the deceased body, we got to conclusion that it is not a case of murder for robbery. The ornaments like aluminum Kada (bracelet), silver bangle and gold earrings intact on the body. Meanwhile, we got information about a missing complaint registered in Sahar police on January 10 and the missing person's description details provided by Coelho couple matching with the deceased. The couple were called for questioning which led to the breakthrough," said DCP (Zone X) Datta Nalawade.After the body was found, Nalawade supervised nine teams—ACP Gajanan Pawar, senior inspector Umesh Machindar, inspector Vinod Patil, sub-inspectors Kishor Parkale, Samadhan Supe, and Sanjay Akolekar—that gathered information about the couple from the neighbourhood and their relationship with the deceased and found contradictions, police said."The team did not let the couple know that we have cracked the case and first made them to identify the deceased. Later, the couple and their son were questioned separately before they broke down and confessed to the crime. The couple told that they thought that they will be never get caught," said a police officer of the Andheri police station.During the probe, police said neighbours told them that due to old age the deceased and the accused regularly fought over petty issues. "The couple said on January 10 at 12.30 am they were annoyed wih the deceased sister's frequent harassment. During the fight they pushed and she fell on her head and succumbed on the spot. With the intention of destroying evidence, they carried the body on their shoulder at night and dumped into the drainage line after opening a closed manhole. Subsequently, they filed a false missing person report," said the police.
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