The accused was arrested after a tip-off from a local resident led police to the vehicle carrying the body

Kalyan: A 40-year-old village sarpanch from Kolhapur district was allegedly strangled to death by her lover, who then drove her body more than 350km to Bhiwandi in Thane district to dispose of it. The accused was arrested after a tip-off from a local resident led Narpoli police to the vehicle carrying the body.The deceased, Surekha Nyare, was the elected sarpanch of Shirgaon village in Shahuwadi taluka of Kolhapur district. Police identified the accused as Prakash Patil (40), also a resident of Shirgaon.According to investigators, Nyare and Patil were in an extramarital relationship. During questioning, Patil allegedly said that Nyare was pressuring for separation from their respective spouses so that they could get married, which led to frequent fights between them. He also allegedly suspected her of seeing another man.On Sunday, around 11am, Patil allegedly took Nyare to his farm in Shirgaon and strangled her to death. He then allegedly wrapped the body, placed it inside the boot of his car and drove overnight to a relative’s house in Kasheli in Bhiwandi.However, his suspicious behaviour raised doubts, prompting the relative to alert Narpoli police. Acting swiftly, a police team intercepted the car , recovered the body and arrested Patil.Senior inspector Vijay Kadbane of Narpoli police station said a Zero FIR was registered under Section 103(1) (murder) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita. The body was sent for postmortem examination before the case was transferred to Kolhapur police.Kadbane said that the primary probe showed that both were married and the deceased wanted to marry the accused, but he was refused. Further, the accused also suspected her of having an affair with someone else. These two reasons led to the killing, he said, adding that probe is on.