Pune/Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar: A 34-year-old woman from Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar who had gone to UK to pursue an MBA was found dead in a rented flat in Pimpri Chinchwad after police traced her location while investigating a missing-person complaint filed by her father.The woman’s highly decomposed body was recovered from a flat in a housing complex at Gahunje on Wednesday night. Shirgaon police have registered a case of accidental death and are probing the circumstances surrounding her death.The case came to light after the woman’s father, a retired engineer of Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar Municipal Corporation (CSMC), approached the local Osmanpura police when the family lost contact with her, said inspector Ashok Mudiraj.The woman had moved to London in July 2025 for higher studies and remained in regular touch with her family. Her last known conversation was with her mother on Oct 23, when she reportedly said she had an interview and ended the call abruptly. The family’s repeated attempts to contact her after Oct 24 failed as her phone remained switched off.“The woman used to call or send text messages to family members from her UK phone number. However, the family could not contact her after the evening of Oct 24, and her cellphone was subsequently found in switched-off mode,” senior inspector Devendra Chavan, of Shirgaon police, said.Concerned relatives contacted one of the woman’s friends, who said she had last exchanged messages with her on Oct 22. At the family’s request, the friend approached local authorities in London, who later informed her that the woman had left the UK in Aug this year.The family then sought help from police and diplomatic channels. Osmanpura police registered a missing-person case and launched an investigation.A breakthrough came after the family examined her bank records. Police found recent transactions linked to online services, including food delivery and travel platforms. A Blinkit delivery linked to Osmanpura in Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar further raised suspicion that she had returned to India without informing her family.Using technical inputs, police traced her movements to a residential complex in Gahunje near Pune.A police team reached the flat. Finding the door locked from inside and receiving no response, officers entered the premises and found the woman dead.Pimpri Chinchwad assistant commissioner of police Manish Kalyankar said, “The team gained entry by breaking the lock and found the woman’s highly decomposed body inside the flat. Prima facie, it looked like a case of suicide.”Police said no suicide note was found. The flat had reportedly been rented through an agent in Aug under a valid rental agreement.Senior police inspector Devendra Chavan said the exact cause of death would be established only after the postmortem. Police are now piecing together the woman’s movements after she left the UK and the circumstances that led to her death.
