Police have added charges under the SC/ST Atrocities Act against the accused in the case of alleged murder of a 20-year-old woman at Uran in Navi Mumbai, officials said on Wednesday.

The accused in the case, Dawood Shaikh, was apprehended from Shahapur area of Gulbarga in neighbouring Karnataka on Tuesday morning.

"He was brought to Navi Mumbai on Tuesday night following his arrest in Karnataka. He is presently in the custody of police in Belapur (in Navi Mumbai)," a senior police official told PTI.

The accused will be presented in a court later in the day, he said.

"The police have now added charges under the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act in the case of murder filed against Shaikh," another police official said.

The woman's body was found in the wee hours of Saturday after her parents filed a missing persons report on July 25. The autopsy report confirmed that the victim died of multiple stab wounds, the police earlier said.

A case under section 103 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) was registered against an unidentified person, and eight teams were formed to trace the accused. The police had initially detained several suspects whose information led them to Shaikh.

According to police, the accused had lived in Uran for some time but went to Karnataka after the victim's father lodged a police complaint against him, and a case under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act was registered against him in 2019.

The accused worked as a driver in the neighbouring state, and the victim remained in touch with him, the police said.

A heated argument between the two may have led to the killing, but the exact motive behind the crime is being probed, they have said.

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