Body of HDFC Bank vice-president Siddharth Sanghvi found near Kalyan highway after taxi driver confesses crime

Four days after the vice-president of HDFC Bank Siddharth Sanghvi went missing from his Kamala Mills office, the Navi Mumbai Police recovered the 39-year-old banker’s body in a hilly area near the Haji Malang shrine in Kalyan, reports said. The police have detained a 20-year-old taxi driver identified as Sarfaraz Shaikh in connection with the murder.

The Navi Mumbai Police made a significant breakthrough in the case on Saturday when it detained Shaikh from Kopar Khairane, who later confessed that he was the one who disposed of Sanghvi’s body.

Shaikh also gave the names of three men who he claimed stabbed Sanghvi in a parking lot inside Kamla Mills Compound in Lower Parel. The men then allegedly wrapped Sanghvi’s body in a mattress and kept it in his car, after which Shaikh disposed of the body reported The Indian Express.  

The Navi Mumbai Police, which is conducting a parallel investigation, picked up Shaikh from CBD Belapur.

Shaikh lives in Kopar Khairane and drives an app-based taxi, according to the report. “After dumping the body near Haji Malang in Kalyan, Shaikh abandoned the car in Koperkhairaine,” said an officer.

The NM Joshi Marg police in Lower Parel detained four more persons, including a woman in connection with the case, reported The Times of India. Preliminary reports had claimed that Sanghavi might have been murdered over professional jealousy.

Shaikh was produced before a court in Mumbai, which remanded him to police custody till 19 September, ANI  reported.

Sanghavi had left his office in Kamala Mills area at 7.30 pm on Wednesday. As Sanghvi did not return home till late night, his family members approached the NM Joshi Marg Police Station in Central Mumbai and lodged a missing person complaint, a police official had told PTI.

Subsequently, a complaint was registered at NM Joshi Marg Police Station, and an investigation into the matter was initiated.

Police were able to trace Sanghvi’s car to Kopar Khairane. Media reports had earlier stated that blood stains were found on Sanghvi’s car.