Pune: It was a shocking end to a desperate two-day search for a missing woman. Phursungi police on Saturday opened a murder investigation after a man discovered the body of his wife stuffed inside the storage compartment of the very sofa-cum-bed he had been sleeping on for two days, while he searched for her. The deceased has been identified as Swapnali Umesh Pawar (24), a resident of Hundekar Vasti, near Hadapsar.
She was last heard from on Nov 7 when her husband Umesh had called her around 10am. Umesh, who works as a cab driver, was in Beed to drop a passenger when he had called to check on her. But the next day he was unable to reach her despite repeated attempts — her phone had been turned off.
Worried, Umesh then asked a friend in Pune to go to his house, only to be told there was no sign of his wife at their home. The cabbie returned to Pune the same day around 12.30pm and began what would be an extensive search.
For the next two days, he rode through Hadapsar's neighbourhoods on a bike, looking for his wife. He also visited homes of friends and family, but there was no sign of Swapnali. On Saturday morning, around 7am, after discovering that some of his wife's valuables were also missing, Umesh opened up the small storage compartment inside the sofa-cum-bed, and found his wife's body stuffed inside.
"Tragically, it was the very piece of furniture he was sleeping on, a 4x6ft unit. He's in a state of shock," said senior inspector Mangal Modhawe of Phursungi police. "We.