Cops arrest centering worker for Alandi double murder

Pune: The Pimpri Chinchwad police on Friday arrested a centering worker (31) for murdering a woman (75) and a six-year-old girl in Alandi on Thursday.On April 2, Dhanashri Kedari (6) and her neighbour Mangal Shinde (75) were found murdered in the latter's house at Kelgaon Thakarwadi near Alandi.The murders came to light when the girl's grandmother went to the neighbour's house to bring her granddaughter back. She then registered a complaint. The suspect, identified as Vinayak Bhavari, is the second husband of the complainant."The suspect confessed to killing both the girl and the elderly. He told us that he hatched a plan to kill the elderly woman as he suspected that she was instigating his wife to stay away from him. While he was bludgeoning Mangal Shinde with a blunt object, the girl woke up. The girl was sleeping beside the elderly woman. The accused then suffocated her to death with a pillow and fled," senior police inspector Bhima Narke of Alandi police told TOI.Narke said after the murders came to light, police examined the complainant's cellphone. They found that since Wednesday, the accused had been in constant contact with her through calls on a mobile messaging app.The suspect had not been staying with his wife for the past few days as she suspected him of infidelity. The complainant had married the suspect two years ago after her husband passed away.Recently, she suspected that Bhavari was in a relationship with another woman, leading to frequent quarrels between the couple. "We found that the couple had a heated argument on Wednesday," Narke said.The officer added that when police initially tried to contact Bhavari, he did not respond. They eventually reached him through a messaging app call and asked him to come to Alandi."He tried to avoid us by claiming that he did not have money. We grew suspicious and sent a team to take him into custody. He was nabbed at Ale Phata," Narke said.