Tailor’s tag on shirt helps police crack murder case
A tailor’s tag stitched inside the collar of the victim’s shirt led the Pune Rural Police to crack a brutal murder case, helping them identify the deceased and arrest the culprits, an officer said on Tuesday.
On March 9, a decomposed body of a man, aged between 30 and 35, was found stuffed in a gunny bag on the Nira riverbed in Sarola village, Bhor, Pune district. The victim’s hands and legs were tied, and there were no identification documents or personal belongings on him, making it difficult for the police to establish his identity.
During a forensic examination, officers discovered a tailor’s tag on the victim’s shirt collar, reading “Krushna Tailors”. Following this lead, police traced the tailor shop to Lohara in Dharashiv district. The tailor identified the deceased as Sidheshwar Bandu Bhise, 40, a Pune resident originally from Vadgaon Wadi village in Lohara tehsil, Dharashiv district.
Further investigation revealed that the murder was linked to an extramarital affair. Bhise’s wife, Yogita Siddheshwar Bhise, 30, and her lover, Shivaji Baswant Sutar, 32, of Andur in Tuljapur tehsil, conspired to kill him.
Pune Rural SP Pankaj Deshmukh said, “Two days ago, we recovered a male body in a gunny bag on the Pune-Satara district border under the jurisdiction of Rajgad police station. Investigation revealed that the deceased was from Dharashiv. Further inquiry confirmed that his wife and her lover killed him and dumped the body in the riverbed.”
“Prima facie, it appears to be a crime of passion. We are conducting further inquiries,” Deshmukh added.
How the murder was committed
According to sub-divisional police officer (Bhor division) Tanaji Barde, Yogita and Sutar were childhood friends from the same village. Yogita continued to meet Sutar, who ran a mess in the Bharati Vidyapeeth area in Pune, despite her marriage to Siddheshwar 13 years ago. At the time of the murder, the accused was running a food stall selling Chinese food in Andur in Dharashiv district.
On March 3, Sutar travelled to Pune and booked a lodge to meet Yogita. That evening, she visited him, carrying a home-cooked tiffin, but when she returned home, Siddheshwar became suspicious and allegedly assaulted her over the meeting.
Later that night, Yogita called Sutar, who arrived at her house around 1am. An argument broke out between Sutar and Yogita, waking up her husband. The confrontation escalated, and in a fit of rage, Yogita and Sutar strangled Siddheshwar to death.
They tied his hands and legs, stuffed the body into a gunny bag, and used a moped motorcycle to transport the body. Shockingly, Yogita took her seven-year-old daughter along as she and Sutar carried the body towards Satara, where they dumped it in the Nira riverbed at the Pune-Satara district border.
On March 9, six days after the murder, Yogita filed a missing person complaint at Kalepadal police station, falsely claiming that her husband left home after an argument. However, forensic evidence, call records, and CCTV footages led the police to uncover the truth.
On Monday, police arrested Yogita from Pune and Sutar from Andur in Dharashiv district. They were produced in court on Tuesday, and the court granted police custody until March 17.
What seemed like a mysterious and untraceable crime was solved by a tailor’s tag—a detail often overlooked in most cases. The small piece of cloth helped police establish the victim’s identity, connect the dots, and unravel the murder plot.
