Nagpur: The sensational firing incident in Khaparkheda where a man shot his rival dead is yet to be resolved by the police. Suraj Kawle, who is likely to have shot dead his rival Akash Panpatte, alias Ashish at Khaparkheda on Saturday, was yet to be nabbed. It has been reliably learnt that a minor too may have aided Suraj when he had fired the shots from close quarters.
Police said Kawle, a former murder accused, was thrashed by Panpatte in January earlier this year. Panpatte wanted to avenge Kawle’s assault on a close friend of his in the past. Kawle was booked for attempt to murder for assaulting Panpatte’s friend by Khaparkheda police. Still, Panpatte wanted to teach Kawle a lesson. Police said Panpatte too was named as an accused in the sensational Mehtab murder case at Sillewada in 2009 but had been acquitted.
Panpatte was with his close aides Nilesh Dehariya and others before stepping out of a beer bar to intervene into a commotion between his friend Golu and someone else. Sources close to Panpatte said that he had just sat on someone’s bike as pillion rider when Kawle fired upon him from close range. The first shot entered Panpatte head from back before exiting from the front side of face. As he fell down, the second shot grazed past Panpatte’s head while the third had misfired before Kawle fled from the spot. CCTV footage has captured the murder which is now in possession of police.
Several teams of rural police, including Local Crime Branch (LCB), have launched a search for Kawle and his accomplice. Senior police officials assured the arrest of Kawle at the earliest. Senior PI Sanjay Purandhare has, however, ruled out gang war behind the murder stating that the close aides of Mehtab and other criminals were rounded up but none seemed to be involved as of now.
