Married woman beheaded within 5 days of marriage, husband arrested

“A tattoo of Lord Ganesha combined with an Om symbol on her shoulder identified her”

MUMBAI: Woman has been found dead within five days of her marriage with different body parts scattered in a forest. Her head was discovered yesterday in a forest on the Shahapur-Nashik Road in the eastern suburb of Thane, wrapped in a plastic bag and then a bed sheet.

Priyanka Gurav, 24, went missing on May 5. She was living with her in-laws in Worli. Her body was found a day later in a drain in Navi Mumbai, about 50 kms from where she lived.

A tattoo of Lord Ganesh combined with an om symbol on her shoulder identified her. The police then arrested her husband, Siddhesh Gurav, and his parents, for her murder and destruction of evidence. Two men who allegedly helped dispose of her body parts have also been arrested.

The victim, who was a B.Com graduate, had been married just five days before she went missing. The police says the motive for the murder could be that her husband was pressurised to marry her, but its priority is to find the vehicle used to transport the body parts since that could yield crucial evidence including bloodstains.

“We arrested an accused involved in dumping the body and he took our team to the spot where the head was dumped in a plastic bag. The head was wrapped in bed sheet and plastic bags,” police said.