Navi Mumbai: More than a week after a 22-year-old man went missing from Yadav Nagar, his decomposed body has been found in the same area. Manoj Sabhajeet Bind, who had been missing since 12.15 am of January 21, was found dead on Wednesaday morning from a pit near truck terminal in Yadav Nagar in Rabale.

“The family had reported a missing person’s complaint and we had been looking for him and that is when we found his decomposed body. The mother of the deceased identified him with the help of his shirt. Bind had stepped out of the house on the wee hours of January 21 for going to the washroom,” a police officer from Rabale MIDC police station said. Bind resided in the slums of Yadav Nagar and hence had gone to the common washroom.

Upon reaching the site wherein the body was dumped, police found the decomposed remains, making identification difficult. The body was sent for post-mortem, and forensic teams collected evidence. The assailants deliberately placed heavy stones over the body to cover up the crime. The mother of the deceased identified her son with the help of the shirt that he was wearing.

So that the police do not look for Bind after his disappearance, the accused had sent a text message from the phone of Bind to a friend at 1.40 am of January 21 stating that he was going out of town for few days and won’t return soon, said a police officer. After the case of murder was registered, Crime Branch Unit I and Rabale MIDC police started investigating the case.

While checking the cctv footage, crime branch officials found a footage of 12.25 am of January 21 wherein Bind was see with two other men from the same area. Of the two men, one has been detained and the interrogation is on.

“We suspect that the detained man could be behind the murder since he had stolen the ATM card of the deceased few days back. The suspect knew the ATM pin as well and on January 16 he withdrew Rs 21,000 using the ATM card. The deceased had complained to the police and also raised his suspicion over the suspect. The police had said that they would procure the cctv footage of the ATM centre. We suspect that in order to evade any action by the police in case of ATM theft, the suspect would have killed Bind,” a police official from Crime Branch said. The detained suspect has been handed over to Rabale MIDC police.

“We are yet to arrest him as we are still interrogating him. Once it is confirmed that he was involved in the crime, we would arrest him,” senior police inspector Sunil Waghmare from Rabale MIDC police station said.