Diya 
In a case that seems to come from a grim crime novel but in horrible reality, Navi Mumbai police have busted a grisly contract murder in Ulwe in which a 35-year-old man allegedly paid ₹6 lakh to hired killers to kill his wife in cold blood.
The accused, named Pradeep Chauhan, was arrested with two contract killers who killed Pooja Chauhan earlier this month. The case has shocked residents and businesses in the satellite city that is known for its skyscrapers and quiet neighborhoods, but not for violent crime.
“This was a very orderly murder, not a crime of passion,” said DCP Vivek Pansare of Navi Mumbai Crime Branch. “The accused not only orchestrated the murder of his wife, but took time to watch her movements to make sure everything was clean execution.”
The crime occurred on June 8 when Pooja Chauhan, 32, was found dead beside a secluded lane in Sector 23, Ulwe. Initial reports suggested that she was murdered during a mugging, but investigators began to notice discrepancies in the timeline and evidence.
The case really broke open when police received CCTV footage that showed Pooja being stalked by two unknown men a few hours before her death. video that raised eyebrows. Post-mortem details show that the cause of death was strangulation not blunt trauma.
What followed was a dramatic chain of events. Under duress from the interviewers, Pradeep Chauhan — who earlier in the process had displayed visible and real grief while performing the last rites of his wife — confessed.
According to police information Pradeep Chauhan, a mid-level contractor from Panvel, was, allegedly, having an affair with a 28-year-old woman he met on social media and the romance had been escalating for the past year and he was “looking to start life afresh,” which, in order to do so without a tapping into a costly divorce, he had decided to get rid of his current wife.
Thus, the idea to eliminate his wife occurred to him.
“He called one of his labour site workers to do the job, offering the man ₹6 lakh,” said a senior officer of the crime branch. “The money was given in three installments, and the last installment was paid just a day before her murder.”
The day of the murder Pooja had gone for her usual evening walk around 9 pm. Unbeknownst to Pooja, two men followed her. One of them pretended to ask for directions as a distraction while the other came from behind with a nylon cord.
She was dead in minutes. Her handbag which was removed from her was found nearby, apparently flung there to give the outcome the appearance of a mugging.
While the perpetrators may have neglected that there several constructions underway in the area had all the usual security cameras, the collection of images from the footage for added clarity allowed three angles to provide the cops the identity of their motorbike and the facial features of the killers.
After rolling up, the phone records and financial transactions, and the location data, the cops began to create a digital breadcrumb trail exposing Pradeep with the killers via numerous meetings and money transfers over an interval of two months.
Police seized the call detail records (CDRs) and WhatsApp chat backup data as key evidence. One of the killers stated that he was “guilt-ridden”, but “I needed the money badly for a family medical emergency”
After Pradeep’s confession, the police officers arrested both hitmen, aged 30 and 33, from Kalamboli and Taloja – within the following 48 hours.
The murderer’s motive was horrifically uncomplicated – from convenience to greed. There is no evidence of domestic abuse or any protracted divorce or legal battles going on at the time. What there was evidence of was one man’s regret over his decision to end a life in exchange for his pursuit of a new romance.
This case demonstrates and reinforces a regrettable trend in metropolitan areas, whereby professional hitmen – have morphed into ‘solvers’ for ordinary people to exploit a contract-kill as a means of resolving their own personal problems.
The three defendants have been charged under various Sections of the IPC: 302 (murder), 120B (criminal conspiracy) and 201 (destruction of evidence). The police are now investigating if more people were involved in the conspiracy, including Pradeep’s purported accomplice.
The murder has shocked the Ulwe community — neighbors remembered Pooja as “always quiet and respectful,” and said Pooja’s death was “really beyond imagination.”
As the trial begins, one thing is apparent — behind the facades of the sleek Ulwe towers hid a story of betrayal, greed, and a gruesome scheme — and one that has an entire community now asking, how well do we really know those we hold so dear to us?
for more updates, visit dipdives.com
About The Author
