According to Mumbai police, the body of Badar Ali, 38, was recovered from a river in Karnataka by Bangalore police. Ali had gone missing some time after he took the people who hired the Chevrolet Tavera car (MH-43-D-3572) from his cousin Mohammed Feroz’s travel agency.

On January 29, the police said, one Farhan Mohammed Fareed Sheikh, 22, a businessman from Crawford Market, approached Feroz and hired a car to go to Mahabaleshwar.

“Farhan gave Rs 1000 as deposit and hired a Tavera to go to Mahabaleshwar. Feroz asked Ali to go with Farhan. The three knew each other and Ali had driven Farhan to other places earlier,” said Assistant Police Inspector Suresh Shinde of J J Marg police station.

Farhan had asked one Deepak Gupta, 20, an unemployed youth from his locality and his friend to go with him on a holiday.

“On February 4, I received a call from Ali saying that he was going to Bangalore with Farhan. Since I was not well, I was at my father’s place. But after that, there was no call from Ali . We lodged a missing person complaint with the police. Because of the tension, I had a miscarriage,” said Shadab, 36, Ali’s wife who was pregnant.

Ali stayed with his wife and two children at the Mohammedi building in Peerkhan street in Nagpada.

Shinde said, “When there was no contact with both Farhan and Ali, Feroz lodged a missing person complaint with us. The mobile phones of all three of them — Farhan, Ali and Deepak — were switched off. Farhan too did not come back home for several days. We then found out the whereabouts of Deepak in his native place in Bihar and brought him to Mumbai on February 29. Deepak told us that two friends of Farhan had joined them in Bangalore. They had played cricket in the hotel’s compound and were in a holiday mood. Farhan then asked Ali to start for Mumbai in the night which he refused. There was a heated argument between the two, but finally they started early next morning.”

According to Shinde, they started at around 5 am on February 5 for Mumbai.

“Deepak told us that Farhan and his two friends from Bangalore again got into a fight with Ali and in a fit of rage, they allegedly stabbed Ali with a knife and killed him. Deepak said that he did not stab Ali. His body was then dumped into a nearby river,” Shinde added.

When J J Marg police contacted Bangalore police, it was found that they had registered a case of murder of an unidentified person.

“A police team was dispatched with Deepak to Bangalore where he led them to the two friends of Farhan. Bangalore police have arrested the two and also took Deepak in their custody. Farhan, however, is still at large,” Shinde said.