NAVI MUMBAI: Six people have been arrested by Khandeshwar police for the murder of a 29-year-old woman working as digital marketing executive in a Thane- based company, after four days of meticulous investigation.
The victim Priyanka Rawat was killed by unidentified assailants who slit her throat with a knife outside Panvel railway station on September 15 around 10pm.
The police investigation has revealed that it was a contract killing pre-planned by the victim's husband Devvrathsingh Rawat (32) who works as sales executive for an e-commerce company in Vashi and his paramour Nikita Matkar (24), a teacher at educational coaching centre. They had hired three contract killers for Rs 3 lakh through Matkar's employer Pravin Ghadge, who had arranged for three history-sheeters from Buldhana to murder Priyanka.
They have been identified as Pankaj Yadav (26), Rohit Sonone (22) and Deepak Lokhande (25). The trio were wanted by the Jalgaon police in a firing incident, informed a police officer.
A day after the murder, the Khandeshwar police using technical expertise got vital leads of the suspects and had detained her husband and his girlfriend, as prime suspects. After interrogating them separately, they revealed that they had got married in a temple in August and Priyanka had learnt about the affair. They planned to have Priyanka murdered so they could live together.
On September 15 two of the accused followed her and alerted their aide Pankaj Yadav, who grabbed her from behind and slit her throat at at the auto rickshaw stand on the New Panvel node and ran away.
