MUMBAI: On Tuesday afternoon Sanjay Punewar broke down when the TOI informed him that his wife Alka Punewar (44), a marathi actress who had mysteriously disappeared last week, was alive in Chennai but he was shattered learning that she had eloped with a boy half her age. The Thane police have send a team to Chennai to get Alka and her boyfriend Alok Paliwal to Mumbai. TOI in its Tuesday's edition had hinted that two persons who were along with Alka on the day she went missing, were under scanner.

On December 27, Alka (44) who has done small roles in Hindi films viz Bawander, Gadar and few tv serials went for a party in Uran and from Uran she was to go to Pune and from Pune to Chennai. Two days later her mangled car was found in deep valley in Khopoli near Mumbai-Pune expressway.

The city crime branch which were doing a parallel probe into the case blew the lid after they detained Sanjiv Kumar Sonkar , a close friend of Alka who spill the bean on the stage drama.Giving minute details of the stage drama Sonkar said that his friend Alok Paliwal (24), a MBA who is also a software engineer and Alka were having affairs since past one year. Thane police will on Wednesday take a call on whether trio-Alok, Alka and Sonkar can be booked for kidnapping, misleading police and criminal conspiracy of 120 B. We are happy that she is alive. Our team is questioning Alka and Alok in Chennai to find the truth and than we will see what can be done in this case.''said KP Raghuvanshi, Thane police commissioner.

He told police that duo were desperate to get married but Alka's husband Sanjay Punewar was an hurdle for them and hence they hatched a plan. On December 27, after her husband dropped Alka near Anand theatre at Thane from where she said her driver would drive her to Uran where a marathi show was to take place.

After Punewar left, as planned Paliwal and his friend Sonkar met Alka outside Thane railway station. Trio than drove to Sonkar's flat in Kharghar in Navi Mumbai where they had some party and late night all three drove to CST. While Alka boarded a bus to Chennai, Paliwal and Sonkar drove to Khopoli in Alka's car.

The car got punctured at Phalaspe phata on Mumbai Pune expressway where Paliwal send an sms from Alka's cell number to her husband Punewar asking him to send the resume of one of their son Pratik to a particular email address. Later they drove the car to Khopoli and pushed it in a 900 feet deep valley along with Alka's cell phone so to look like an accident. Paliwal and Sonkar than waved hands to truck drivers informing that an accident has fallen. They slowly vanished and the truck drivers informed the traffic police.'' Said Inspector Nandkumar Gopale of property cell.

Alka and Paliwal wanted to get married and hence they thought they will mislead Punewar and police by pushing the vehicle but like any other criminal they made a mistake when Alka by mistake send an sms to Paliwal's cell number which latter has suspended in July itself.

When we started scanning that number we got hands on Paliwal's number which is registered in Andhra Pradesh. We called for the CDR of that number and we got another cell number from which there were frequent calls and both numbers were seen moving along in Mumbai and Chennai. Surfing more we got another number which was of Sonkar.'' Said Himanshu Roy , joint commissioner of police.

Police than picked up Sonkar,a resident of Kharghar who during sustain interrogation broke and spill the beans to Mumbai police. Sonkar said that as per plans Alka pressurized her husband Punewar to buy a second hand 800 car which latter brought just few days prior to the incident. We have handed over Sonkar to Thane police as the Kopri police is probing the missing and kidnapping case. '' said Niket Kaushik,additional commissioner of police. It was also learnt that Alka lied her husband whenver she told she was going for shoot. When she went to Bangalore or Chennai, she told Punewar that she was going to Bangkok.