After her body was found on December 15, the first clue that the police pursued was to trace the shop from where the woman’s footwear was purchased. The sandal had name of a local brand. The police traced two shops selling the brand in Panvel and Vashi

Navi Mumbai A local footwear brand found on 27-year-old woman whose body was found dumped in the Gandhi riverbed in Panvel on December 15 provided the first clue that led to her killers.

The clue helped Navi Mumbai crime branch to solve the murder of Urvashi Satyanarayan Vaishnav, who family had registered a missing person’s complaint at Nerul police station on December 15.

On Wednesday, the crime branch said they arrested a gym trainer and his friend from Deonar on charges of strangulating the woman, working in a Nerul bar, and dumping her body in Panvel.

The accused identified as Riyas Samad Khan (36), who worked as a gym trainer at Ghansoli, had met Urvashi around three years ago at a Nerul bar where she was employed.

Vaishnav lived with her mother and brother at Koparkhairane. She had been asking Khan, who was already married twice, to marry her. Meanwhile, Khan had a year-and-half old daughter out of the second marriage and lived with them at Deonar. He had divorced his first wife.

“Prima facie, we found that he did not want to marry the girl and was irked over her demands to get married and he decided to kill her with the help of his friend,” Deputy Commissioner of Police (Crime Branch) Amit Kale said.

According to the police, on the night December 14, Khan picked up Urvashi from her residence at Koparkhairane on the pretext of dropping her to work. On the way, Riyas picked up his friend Imran Ismail Shaikh (28), who worked as a courier delivery boy. The duo strangulated Urvashi in the car and then drove to Panvel.

“Khan and Urvashi often spent time at the river side in Panvel and he knew the place well. He was aware that people don’t frequent the area and fewer street lights could provide a cover for his crime. They reached Dhamani village in Panvel and threw the body from the bridge above Gandhi river,” Kale added.

After her body was found on December 15, the first clue that the police pursued was to trace the shop from where the woman’s footwear was purchased. The sandal had name of a local brand. The police traced two shops selling the brand in Panvel and Vashi. The shop in Vashi confirmed that it was purchased from them around eight days ago. The CCTV footage of the shop had captured Urvashi and Khan purchasing the sandal.

“The physique of the Khan made us believe that he was a gym trainer or someone who visited the gym regularly. Hence, we started visiting each and every gym in Navi Mumbai till we found one in Ghansoli who confirmed he was a trainer with them,” senior police inspector Ravindra Patil from unit II, crime branch, said.

With the help of call data records, the police found the Khan’s presence at the location a day before the body was found and also found that there was one more person with him.

Shaikh, the accomplice in the murder, was first detained and after thorough interrogation, Khan was also nabbed. “It was after the arrest of the accused that we learnt the name of the deceased. Later, when we contacted the family, it was learnt that the family had registered a missing person’s complaint as well at Nerul police station on December 15,” Kale added.