Murder machinations

According to newspaper reports an abandoned TV carton bearing a corpse that was deposited at Nowroz Baug on January 31, 2006 took the colony residents by surprise. It was sighted by a security guard when he went to the electric meter room to switch on the floor lights of the building. But the residents were in for a greater shock the next day when they heard that the body had been identified as that of 44-year-old Yazdi Meherwanji Bharucha.

Bharucha had left his home at Tardeo’s Hormuz Mansion for Asha Dham Spastics Society at Byculla where he frequently did social work at around 4.30 p.m. on January 30, mentions the Mid Day report of February 2, adding, an hour later the family got a call from a man who identified himself as Pravin saying Bharucha was with him in Dadar since he was unwell. After some time when his father Meherwanji called to enquire after Yazdi’s health he was taken aback when a woman answered the phone saying she lives in Mulund and didn’t know anyone by those names. The next morning when Yazdi had not returned home, Meherwanji filed a missing person complaint at the Tardeo police station and also sent his photograph to the Missing Persons Bureau. On February 1 when he read a report in the Mid Day about an unidentified body at Nowroz Baug he approached the police who took him to the KEM Hospital morgue where he was able to identify his son.

After opting for voluntary retirement Yazdi worked as a consultant for companies engaged in chemical business, according to a report in The Times of India of February 3. Not known to have any enemies the police are yet to ascertain the motive behind the murder of the victim who lived with his widowed father, wife and a 17-year-old daughter.