HDFC executive murder: Accused says he killed Siddharth Sanghvi for money, had to pay bike's EMI

The 20-year-old taxi driver Sarfaraz Shaikh, arrested in connection with the murder of HDFC executive Siddharth Sanghvi, has told a magistrate that he committed the crime for money, according to reports. Shaikh said he was under immense pressure to pay the EMI for a loan taken for buying a motorcycle.

The Mumbai Police said that the vice-president of the HDFC bank was killed in a robbery attempt gone wrong. Shaikh, the police said, was in dire need of money and accosted Sanghvi with a knife at the banker’s office compound in Kamala Mills, according to India Today . He demanded Rs 30,000-35,000, a demand that Sanghvi refused. Following this, Shaikh stabbed Sanghvi multiple times and even slit the banker’s throat.

After committing the crime, the accused stuffed the victim’s body in his car and disposed it at Kalyan in the neighbouring Thane district, a police official said. Shaikh, later dumped the car in Navi Mumbai, he added.

Shaikh confessed the crime to the magistrate, according to Hindustan Times , and said, “I was under pressure to pay my bike’s EMI and also was in need of money and I used to see him going in and coming out of the building.”

Sanghvi’s body was found on Monday from Thane, five days after he was reported missing. The HDFC executive had allegedly disappeared from the parking lot of his office on 5 September, and a complaint was lodged by his family soon afterwards with NM Joshi Marg Police Station in central Mumbai.

Three days after Sanghvi went missing, his father received a call, with the caller telling him that his son was safe and he need not worry. Investigations revealed that the call was made from Sanghvi’s phone from Navi Mumbai, although the sim card was different, the police said.

The police found that the phone was in possession of Sarfaraz Shaikh. He was taken into custody and interrogated, during which he allegedly confessed to murdering Sanghvi for money, the police claimed.

With inputs from agencies