The crime branch on Sunday arrested one Ritesh Narpatraj Singhvi (25) for allegedly murdering an American lady in a Bangkok hotel room in Feb 2012. The accused was arrested from Parbhani.
Singhvi, first met victim Wendy Albano (50), a resident of Florida, on Facebook in 2010. Wendy had been facing problems after recession had hit US economy. Singhvi suggested she import handicraft and imitation jewellery.
In March 2011, Wendy came to Mumbai and stayed at Residency. She visited India again in August. The two of them visited Jaipur and stayed together.
Singhvi, in his statement, said he wanted to marry Wendy and move to Florida. In 2012 Wendy was supposed to join a new job. Both of them decided to meet in Bangkok before that as that city had visa-on-arrival facility. On Feb 8, 2012 the two reached Faser Hotel in Bangkok.
"Singhvi told his parents he was going to Mahabaleshwar. After a day or two when Singhvi called up his father, he told Singhvi to return home," said ACP (Crime) KMM Prasanna, who added: "When Singhvi told Wendy he couldn't stay any longer, she slapped him. And in a fit of anger, he stabbed her with a kitchen knife, and later fled Bangkok."
To evade arrest Singhvi kept moving from one city to another. Later, he started a shop, 'Kaveri Mobile', in Parbhani and changed his name to Rananjay Jain.
"We had no clue till we started tracking call records of his family members. They were in touch with one number in Parbhani owned by one Deepak Chaudhari. Deepak received a lot of calls from various numbers, but from one particular location in Parbhani. On the basis of this, we gathered intelligence on Singhvi and arrested him," said ACP Prasanna.
After returning to Mumbai, Singhvi had not contacted his family directly, neither had he opened a bank account. He used Deepak as a middleman to pass on messages to his family.
