The man, who allegedly killed her live-in partner by chopping her off in innumerable pieces in his Mumbai flat, has revealed 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.

The officer said that accused Manoj Ramesh Sane, 56, who was arrested on Thursday, has claimed that Saraswati Vaidya, 32, died by suicide on June 3, The Indian Express reported.

Fearing that he would be booked in the case, he allegedly tried to dispose of the body, and told police that he planned to end his life thereafter, the officer said.

The officer, who visited the spot on Wednesday night, after the death came to light, said details of Sane’s claims during interrogation are being verified.

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, police told the neswpaper.

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.