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Feb. 18, 2003 BOMBAY, India - An Indian American man arrested after the murder of a model from New Jersey allegedly paid his childhood friend $22,300 to arrange the killing, Indian police said Tuesday. Police in Thane, a suburb of India's financial hub of Bombay, arrested Pragnesh Desai, 40, on Monday after an autopsy determined that his companion, 33-year-old Leona Swinderski, had been strangled. Swinderski's body was found Feb. 8 on a Bombay highway. Desai, who lived with Swinderski in New Jersey, had accompanied her to India and lodged a police complaint claiming she was missing. A divorcee and father of two, Desai told police that he was to marry Swinderski in May, but their families did not approve of their relationship. "He says Leona wanted to kill his ex-wife and two children who also stay in New Jersey and, therefore, he had to kill her," said Ramrao Pawar, superintendent of police in Bombay's Thane suburb. Police recovered the money that Desai paid in two installments to his childhood friend Vipul Patel, 33. Patel, a resident of Vadodara town in neighboring Gujarat state, hired two men - Altaf Patel and Farooq Patel - who allegedly picked up Swinderski from the airport and killed her. "It was a pre-planned murder. As of now we don't think she was murdered for money because Desai was financially well off. We need more information for the real motive to become clear," Pawar said. Desai faces a life sentence if convicted, and police said they would formally file charges by April. Desai, who moved to the United States 19 years ago, runs restaurants and grocery stores in New Jersey. He told police that Swinderski had disappeared minutes after she went to the washroom at Bombay's Sahar International Airport. Police said Desai appeared confused when he filed the report and later
identified her body. |
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