Young Couple Confesses to Murder of Navi Mumbai Cab Driver Over Blackmail Allegations

Police continue to search for the murder weapon and victim's mobile phone as the case highlights concerns about digital exploitation and urban youth vulnerability.

• Riya Dinesh Sarkanyasingh, 19, and Vishal Sanjay Shinde, 21, were arrested after confessing to the murder of Surendra Asaram Pandey, a cab driver in Navi Mumbai.
• The victim allegedly blackmailed Riya using intimate videos, threatening to leak them online if she did not comply with his demands for sexual favors.
• The couple attacked Pandey with a hammer during a confrontation, concealed his body in a bedsheet, and fled in his car, which later crashed near Pune.
• After the accident, the couple confessed to the crime at a police station in Sangamner, leading authorities to discover Pandey’s decomposed body in his locked apartment.
• Investigators are actively searching for the hammer used in the attack and the victim’s mobile phone, believed to contain the explicit videos central to the case.

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