By Ashok Kumar

Sydney: While no further information is being divulged by police as investigations are still on into why and how Jyoti Mehta and Ujala Dinesh were murdered, Sanjay Mehta , a Blacktown (a Western Sydney suburb) resident continues  to remain in custody after being charged with their murder and then throwing their bodies 150 metres down off a cliff at Echo point in Blue Mountains.  

According to a NSW police media release, Sanjay Mehta, an Engineer by profession  first reported his second wife Jyoti  and step child, apparently, from her previous marriage Ujala Dinesh missing from their Blacktown home since May 5, 2008. The police said the deceit he was weaving finally unravelled when two bushwalkers found a body lying at the base of Echo Point.

The long, straight black hair and purple top were a match to the missing persons report for Ms Mehta. Police discovered a second, smaller, body, which matched the description of Ujalla. Both were in a state of decomposition, police said.

On June 1, police arrested and charged Mehta with the murders of his wife and stepchild. At the same time they seized a Toyota Camry, which was allegedly used to transport the bodies of the two to Echo Point.

While the police first began investigation on the disappearance of the pair but their probe then turned towards Mehta when they discovered allegations of domestic abuse and the suspicions of Ms Mehta’s younger sister, Poonam Sharma. Both Ms Sharma and a domestic violence worker told police of arguments and violence in the months before Ms Mehta’s disappearance.

“The accused had been verbally abusive towards her and had made threats to kill both her and her daughter,” said a police document tendered during a hearing at Blacktown Local Court.

Police alleged that between 8pm and 10pm on May 5, while Mehta was supposedly searching the streets of Blacktown, his mobile phone was detected about 75 kilometers away, in the Blue Mountains.

He later recanted and said he had travelled to the Blue Mountains that night, looking for his wife and Ujalla, the police document said.

Records also showed his mobile phone in the Blue Mountains the next day, May 6. Mehta has denied this.

The Indian national, employed as a parking technician, met his wife on the internet in July 2006. She moved to Australia in May the following year to marry him. Both had live-in children from previous marriages.

On May 26, three weeks after the disappearances, Mehta’s former wife, the mother of his two children, returned from India and moved in. There is no suggestion she was involved in the disappearances.

Several weeks ago Ms Sharma tearfully pleaded for her sister to come home. “I don’t know what happened and why she left. I don’t know anything.”

Mehta will remain in custody until his next appearance in Blacktown court on July 21