‘Close friend’ arrested for killing secretary of Palghar patpedhi

A police officer shows the hammer that the suspect used to kill Chaudhary in her office last week. Pics/Hanif Patel

Days after the secretary of a credit cooperative in Palghar was found murdered, the police have cracked the case with the arrest of a man who was friends with the victim.

Victim Sadhna Chaudhary lived at Satpati village

Sadhna Chaudhary, 57, was killed on January 9 inside her office - Shree Ashtavinayak Patpedhi. The police said it was the suspect who reported the crime after he was sent by her housemates to check on her for not responding to their calls.

The man, Vinod Trivedi, lives in front of the patpedhi office and would spend hours talking to Chaudhary, the cops said. He ran tuition classes from his home and made customised wooden key chains.

While Chaudhary, who lived at Satpati village, trusted Trivedi a lot, the latter often stole money from her drawer. On the day of her murder, he felt she had caught him in the act and might call the police. He bludgeoned Chaudhary to death with a hammer.

Trivedi had recorded his statement earlier, but escaped police radar. While CCTV footage showed no unknown person had visited Chaudhary on that day, the police also found that she never had a fight with anyone.

Senior Inspector Dashrath Patil said, "We were certain that it was the job of an insider. When we questioned the same set of people again, we found inconsistencies in Trivedi's account. On further interrogation, he confessed to the crime." A local court on Thursday remanded Trivedi in police custody.