The incident occurred at the Areef Farmhouse in Jatepada in Bhiwandi taluka of Thane district on the morning of August 14. Local residents noticed that the house was on fire and rushed to douse it, but they could not save Selvamari Augustine Nadar, who lived at the farmhouse with her son.

Based on a complaint filed by the village police patil, Krishna Jayaram Salkar, the police registered a case against Abhimanyu Gupta, who previously worked at a dairy run by the victim’s son. The case was registered at the Bhiwandi Taluka Police Station under sections 103(1) (murder) and 238 (causing disappearance of evidence of the commission of an offence) of the Bhartiya Nyaya Sanhita.

Recognising the gravity of the crime, senior police officers, including Dadaso Edke and Suresh Manore, formed special teams to investigate the case. The Thane Rural crime branch also started a parallel investigation.

The police found that Gupta had been missing since the day of the incident and suspected his involvement in the crime. Through informants and technical evidence, they discovered that Gupta was responsible for the crime.

After ascertaining Gupta’s location, the police on August 16 set a trap at a lodge in the Kapurbawdi area of Thane where he was hiding and apprehended him. During the interrogation, Gupta confessed he had observed while working at the dairy that the victim wore heavy gold jewellery, said a police officer.

Gupta also allegedly admitted that he had become addicted to online gambling, especially rummy, and had incurred a debt of around ₹1.5 lakh. “To repay the debt, he killed the elderly woman, stole her jewellery, and set the house on fire to make it look like the fire had caused the death,” said police inspector Suresh Manore.

Gupta was produced before a magistrate court on August 17 and was remanded to police custody till August 28, added Manore. The police are working on recovering the stolen items.