Mumbai murder accused Manoj Sane, partner Saraswati hid marriage due to age gap, cops claim

Saraswati, 32, was in touch with her four sisters, three of whom were questioned by the police Friday.

"Saraswati and Manoj Sane were married at a temple. She later told her sisters about the wedding, but the couple didn't tell anyone else due to the age difference," police officer Jayant Babale told the media.

Saraswati used to tell people that Manoj Sane, 56, was her maternal uncle and he owned a cloth mill in Mumbai.

Saraswati, a school dropout from Ahmednagar, lived with her sisters for a few years before moving to Mumbai, where she met her alleged killer at a ration shop in Borivali. Sane worked in the shop.

The two became friends, and Sane got her a job. Later, he let her stay at his home in Borivali.

Saraswati, said the police, had lost her mother and her father had left long ago. The sisters grew up in different orphanages. Saraswati, the youngest, saw in Manoj Sane a reprieve from a tough life, the police said.

Meanwhile, Sane has claimed that he was HIV positive.

He said he never had a physical relationship with the victim Vaidya.

She was “like his daughter”, a senior police officer told The Indian Express quoting the suspect.

Sane, who was arrested on Thursday, has claimed that Saraswati died by suicide on June 3, The Indian Express reported.

He has reportedly told the police they fought a lot and Saraswati consumed poison on Sunday, allegedly after a fight.

Sane claimed that he panicked and therefore chopped up her body to dispose of it. The police suspect he was lying to cover up his crime.

The motive for the crime has not been established so far.

Sane allegedly bought an electric saw and cut up his partner's body into so many pieces that it was difficult to count them. He allegedly also ground and boiled some parts.

After cutting the body into small parts with an electric tree cutter, Sane allegedly boiled parts of it in a pressure cooker and roasted them on gas to dump them easily.

He had allegedly kept the pieces in a bucket, tub, cooker, and other vessels in the kitchen, and cut them so small that police could not even count them, an officer said.

The police were alerted by the neighbours after the overpowering stench coming from the couple's apartment became almost unbearable by Tuesday.

On Tuesday evening, the police broke open the door to a most disturbing sight, of rotting human body parts in the living room and three buckets full of human flesh in the kitchen.

Sane, on spotting policemen at his door, tried to run away but was caught by neighbours in the elevator.