The body of a 19-year-old woman who had been missing since December 12, 2023 was found on Tuesday after police cracked a code left behind by her jilted lover who allegedly committed suicide after he killed her. The decomposed body of Vaishnavi Babar was found in the forests of the Kharghar Hills area in Navi Mumbai.
Vaishnavi Babar was allegedly strangled to death in Kharghar hills by the accused, 24-year-old Vaibhav Burungale, who was angry over her snapping ties with him, news agency PTI quoted an official as saying.
Police launched a search operation for Vaishnavi's body after they cracked the code left behind by Vaibhav in his suicide note.
Vaishnavi Babar left for her college in Sion on December 12 but never returned home, following which her mother filed a missing person case report the same day at the Kalamboli police station.
On the same day, Vaibhav Burungale's body was found on the railway tracks at Juinagar station after he allegedly committed suicide by jumping in front of a train. A case was registered over his death and a special task force was set up to conduct the probe.
An official told PTI that police found a suicide note saved on Vaibhav's mobile phone stating that he had murdered Vaishnavi and was going to commit suicide.
The suicide note contained words like ‘L01-501’ which police decoded as the number marked on a tree by the Forest Department where Vaibhav had dumped Vaishnavi's body.
Police then examined CCTV footage and discovered that the two were seen together in the Kharghar Hills area on the day Vaishnavi went missing.
A team of cops, forest department officials, the fire brigade and Cidco then launched a search operation for Vaishnavi's body. Drones were also deployed for the search operation, which lasted 10 days, said police.
The breakthrough came when Vaishnavi's body was spotted lying in bushes in a dumping ground in the Owe camp area in Kharghar. Police said her body was identified based on the dress she was wearing when she had left for college, the wristwatch, and the ID card.
