In a joint operation, the crime branch unit 11 and unit 5 have arrested Aksar Manoj Barla, a native of Odisha who was living in Dharavi slums along with the deceased.
The deceased has been identified as Pratima Kispatta (25), also a native of Odisha. Police said the exact motive behind the murder is still not known but preliminary inquiries suggest that the accused who was live-in relations with the deceased had a petty arguments and in the fit of rage he starangulated her.
On Sunday some locals informed the police that a suspicious suitcase bag was found lying near the garden at CST-Kurla road. On opening the suitcase they found an unknown woman’s body.
“There was no identification over her body except she was wearing a cross pendent in her neck. Her body was sent for post mortem and the Kurla police registered a murder case and our various units started trying to identify her. We circulated the pictures of the deceased and fortunately deceased’s sister called saying that it was her sister,” said Raj Tilak Roaushan, deputy commissioner of police (crime).
Police said that their first priority was to identify her and once the identity is established it becomes easy for them to crack the case.
During inquiries it transpired the deceased and accused both were from Odhisa and they recently met with each other and started to live-in.
Accused police told that on Saturday they had a petty argument and in the fit of rage he strangulated her and after thinking of various ways to destroy the body, he decided to dump her body in suitcase.
He engaged an auto rickshaw early Saturday morning from Sion and halted the auto and told driver he will arrive in just a few minutes after handing over the baggage to someone.
