Mumbai: A 37-year-old woman police inspector mysteriously disappears one night after meeting her lover. The woman, mother to a seven-year-old girl, was living separately from her husband who took care of the daughter.
For nearly a year-and-a-half after the disappearance, despite the family's best efforts, she remains untraceable. The family ran from pillar-to-post and had to, finally, knock on the court's door to get the police to start searching for her.
The needle of suspicion is on her lover – a 52-year-old, well-connected police officer. And now, as preliminary probe points out, on the relative of a senior BJP leader. The story is a heady cocktail of love, lust, betrayal, power and violence. Chaitanya Mangure delves into the finer details of the case —
The Navi Mumbai police investigating the case suspects that the woman officer was killed by her senior and the body thrown in a creek with the help of a BJP strongman's relative in Maharashtra. While the police look for more evidence in the case, let's put some light on the life of Ashvini Bidre.
A native of Kolhapur, she married named Raju Gore in 2005. Bidre achieved her dream of becoming a police officer when she cleared the Maharashtra Public Service Commission examination in 2007. She was soon posted as a sub-inspector in Pune.
After serving there for three years, she was transferred to Sangli, where she moved along with her husband and one-year-old daughter.
It was in her second posting that she met Abhay Kurundkar, her senior at Sangli training center, and their initial friendship soon turned into love.
In 2013, Ashvini was transferred to Ratnagiri district, but the distance of 170 kilometres could not stop Abhay from meeting her frequently. The senior police officer had promised to marry her and she chose to ignore the fact that he was already married and had two children.
In October 2014, Ashvini decided to live separately from her husband. He knew about the affair and agreed to the decision. What surprised Raju was that Ashvini told him she had married Abhay and both of them were planning to stay together. Speaking to News18, Raju said, "Ashvini told me that she wanted to stay separately as she had married Abhay. She showed a bond paper as evidence of her marriage. I spoke to her father, after which we decided to stay separately."
She, however, would visit her native her daughter once in 3-4 months but eventually, even that stopped.
After Ashvini's separation from her husband, Abhay started regularly stayed at her flat. Ashvini’s laptop, which is now with the police, has enough evidence to prove the same.
All was not well between the two, though. The relationship developed cracks as Abhay was not coming good on his promise to marry her, said sources in the police department.
A CCTV video of one such fight surfaced recently. The footage from 2014, recorded on one of the cameras installed at Ashvin’s flat, shows Abhay physically assaulting her. This was submitted as evidence against the senior officer by Ashvini's brother, Anand Bidre.
In 2015, the lady officer was promoted to the rank of Assistant Police Inspector and posted with the Protection of Civil Rights unit in Belapur near Navi Mumbai. During the same time, Abhay was also taking on the responsibility as Senior Police inspector with the Thane Rural police, both located close to each other.
Ashvini stayed alone at a flat in Navi Mumbai's Kalamboli suburb, where she was frequented by Abhay. After some days the senior officer moved in with her.
On April 11, 2016, the lady officer left for office but didn't return back home. On April 14, a few messages were sent from her phone to her brother, Anand, and the WhatsApp group of Kalyan Police, informing that she was going to UP for five or six days.
Weeks passed but Ashvini did not report for duty. In the last week of May, the API’s father received a call from the Navi Mumbai Police Headquarters asking about Ashvini. Till then unaware of her disappearance, the father was shocked when he heard the news. He gathered himself to inform the police that she wasn't at Kolhapur either.
After being informed by his father, Ashvini’s brother Anand, who works in Chennai, decided to look for her himself. Over a month later, he finally gave up and decided to file a police complaint on July 14, 2017.
The police then went to search Ashvini's residence, along with her brother. There they found her laptop, which contained several CCTV footage and call recordings of Ashvini and Abhay. The police also discovered that her car was missing from the parking.
“Anand called me on July 14 and told her about what happened. All evidence point towards Abhay,” said Ashvini’s husband Raju, who recorded his statement soon with the police, soon after Anand's call.
Three days after the missing person complaint, Kalombali police received a call from one of their informer about the missing car. The Maruti 800 was recovered from the parking of Kharghar Railway Station.
Despite evidence pointing towards him, the police did not take any action against Abhay.
After three months of the police claiming no leads, Ashvini's family decided to move the court.
The Bombay High court asked the police to file a report about the investigation carried out in the case. However, the court was not satisfied with the report that the police had filed and directed the cops to carry out a thorough investigation in the case. On January 31, 2017, the police then filed a case of kidnapping.
It took 10 months of investigation by the police to find crucial evidence against senior police inspector Abhay Kurundkar. He initially denied having an affair with Ashvini and gave in, only after being confronted with the evidence. He was arrested on December 7.
"We arrested Abhay Kurundkar after examining technical evidence, his name has also surfaced in the complaint filed by Ashvini’s brother," a senior police officer told News18.
The call detail records of Abhay show that he had called Ashvini on April 11, 2016. This was a few hours before she disappeared.
After a while, the location of both phones was at Kalombali Market. According to the police, Abhay went to Kalombali Market to pick Ashvini. They then headed towards Vashi creek, before moving towards Bhayander creek.
Investigations revealed that Abhay had called another phone number, which was close to their location. The number belonged to Rajesh Patil, nephew of a former minister and part of BJP’s top leadership in Maharashtra.
The duo came to know each other when Abhay was posted in Jalgaon. Patil was arrested on December 11.
Rajesh's phone details show that several calls were exchanged between him and Abhay. They were also seemingly with Ashvini Bidre at her last location at Bhayander.
Around 2:40 am on April 12, both Ashvini and Abhay's phone were switched off. The next ping off his phone was several hours later in Mumbai.
However, Devendra Patekar, Rajesh Patil lawyer says, "He is not involved in any crime but Rajesh knew Abhay. According to Patil, Rajesh received a call from Abhay on April 11, 2016, when he was at a hotel in Andheri. Later, Rajesh went to meet Abhay at Vashi."
However, he added that the meeting was not longer than 15 minutes.
A crucial evidence in the case is a towel with blood stains seized from the flat of Ashvini Bidre. Ashvini's daughter was called for a DNA test, to ascertain if the blood on the towel, was indeed the lady police officers.
Bidre's husband, Raju Gore, brought their daughter to the Panvel ACP's office on December 15. "We visited the Panvel rural civic hospital, where my daughter's blood sample was taken for investigation," he said.
Cops suspect that Ashvini was kidnapped and killed, after which, her body was thrown into the Bhayander creek. Police have sought permission to search Abhay's car, which he may have used to transport the victim and throw her in the creek.
Rajesh Patil and Abhay Kurundkar have been arrested for — Section 497 (Kidnapping or abducting in order to murder), Section 506(2) (Criminal intimidation), Section 497 (Adultery) and Section 323 (Voluntarily causing hurt) of the Indian Penal Code.
However, after 18 months and 2 arrests, the family of Assistant Police Inspector Ashvini Bidre still awaits the answer to their question. Where is Ashvini Bidre?
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