Nagpur: In a shocking incident that took place in the Koradi area, a middle-aged man allegedly held his wife and two children hostage and threatened to blow up them using an LPG cylinder after shutting them in a room at their house at Jagnade Chowk in Om Nagar on Monday. The high-voltage drama reportedly unfolded after a domestic tiff as wife refused to cook a meal. The man removed the pipe of the cooking gas cylinder in his attempt to set them afire.
Koradi police had to negotiate for two hours before they were able to outsmart him and safely bring the drama to an end. Police arrested the accused, Ranjan Ganeshprasad Shao (46), a resident of Shailputri Apartments, Jagnade Layout, Om Nagar, Koradi, for attempting to murder three members of his family after receiving a complaint from his brother-in-law.
Ranjan, head clerk of a railway cooperative bank, had opened the regulator pipe of the cooking gas and switched it on with matchsticks in his hand while intermittently issuing threats. He had endangered the lives of around 40-50 persons in the building, including wife Meenu and two children, aged 14 and 8 years old, before being overpowered. The family has been staying at the apartment since 2009.
It is reported that Ranjan, undergoing treatment at Mayo Hospital for some nerve ailment, had been torturing his wife for the last few years. Ranjan’s wife had left him some time back, and also demanded a divorce but he had managed to cajole her to return.
According to reports, on Tuesday after a tiff over cooking meals, Ranjan had started threatening to kill his family by lighting the LPG cylinder. Apartment dwellers had alerted the police control room, and Koradi police station under Senior Inspector Pravin Pande and ACP Santosh Khandekar rushed to the place.
Khandekar said Ranjan would turn aggressive and threaten to blow up the cylinder by lighting the matchsticks on seeing the police. “Ranjan threatened the cops to stay away. Hence, we decided to advance stealthily, but also summoned the fire brigade,” said Khandekar, appreciating Pande’s role in the drama.
Pande said police had first evacuated the building, bringing out around 40-50 residents. In the end, only the man holding his family hostage was left in the building. “We tried to speak to Ranjan through a window, but he would open the gas cylinder pipe and threaten to light the matchstick. This could have led to a major explosion, and caused many casualties,” said Pande. The cops waited patiently and also instructed the fire tender personnel to wait for their signals.
The police then sent a senior citizen neighbour to negotiate with Ranjan. But Ranjan invited him inside the house and held him hostage too. “The senior citizen too was inside the house and in precarious situation. We then told the senior citizen’s daughter to approach Ranjan and coax him to open the door and allow her father to step out. In the meantime, police acted as if they were leaving the place,” said Pande, and the ploy worked.
“Ranjan was watching through the keyhole when the senior citizen’s daughter told him to open the door once. She said her father should be allowed to come out, promising that the cops and others are leaving,” said Pande.
The cops were, in fact, sitting on the ground outside the door to avoid being spotted by Ranjan through the keyhole. “When Ranjan slightly opened the door, me and my officer barged into the room. We dived inside and pounced upon Ranjan overpowering him. The matchsticks were wrenched from him. Fire brigade personnel too barged inside and covered the cylinder and cleared the air inside the room,” said Pande.
On the complaint of Vivekshivkumar Lal (31), brother-in-law of the accused and a resident of Borkute Layout, Narendra Nagar, Koradi Police registered a case under Sections 307,336,286,506(2) of the Indian Penal Code and arrested Ranjan. ACP Khandekar said special care was taken since Ranjan seemed to be in a disturbed state of mind. Koradi police later took Ranjan to the court, which sent him to Nagpur Central Jail.
