Nagpur: It was blind case and was termed as accidental death. The Rana Pratap Nagar Police Station had registered a case of accidental death (of death resulted by falling down in the staircase from the first floor) too (Under Section 394/15 of Indian Penal Code).
The dead body was duly dispatched to Government Medical College and Hospital for post-mortem. However, the Post Mortem report of the death of the deceased as Murder and not by falling down made the police officers of Rana Pratap Nagar Police Station sit up and take a stock of the reality. They duly added charges of Sections 302 and 34 of Indian Penal Code and started investigations into the murder case afresh.
The Investigation Officer Police Inspector S R Kathale constituted a team of experienced cops from the Detective Branch of the Police Station and started investigation into the matter. The network of police informers was alerted and their help solicited in solving the murder case. The Police Mitras were also alerted.
One basic fact came to fore. The deceased identified as Mahesh Gangadhar Wasnik aged 40 years and a resident of Lokhande Nagar was used to consuming liquor every day. It was also known fact that he used to steal iron bars, cycles and other easily disposable goods which he used to sell to the Kabadi Wallah (Scrap Material buyer) and with that money he used to enjoy liquor.
While speaking to media personnel, Deputy Commissioner of Police Shailesh Balkawde said that to start the investigation, they tried to investigate into all angles or probable motives like Property disputes, family feuds, personal enmity, financial dealings etc. However, none of this was revealing any clues to the exact motive behind the murder.
After regular visit to all those haunts where the deceased visited regularly for his alcohol binges and after talking to all those who have ever talked to him, revealed that he had a tiff with one of the boys who was working as a painter. He had allegedly slapped him and had also tried to remove money from his pocket. However, the boy had ran away from the spot.
During investigation it was revealed that the boy had not taken the slap publicly in the right spirit and considered it as an insult. After consuming liquor, he called two of his friends and thought of taking revenge of the insult. However, during the action of taking revenge, the force used (probably in the effect of alcohol) turned out to be more than required resulting in the death of Mahesh Gangadhar Wasnik. The entire incident occurred on Plot No 118, Lokhande Nagar, Near Gayathri Temple on October 31, 2015 at around 8:33 am.
After investigation, the police got to know the main accused as Rahul alias Chhotu Harishankar Bhautik aged 21 years and a resident of Sarasvati Vihar Colony, Trimurti Nagar. His accomplices include Ankesh alias Anikhet Mohan Mandalekar aged 20 years and a resident of Sai Layout Jaitala and Ravi alias Golu Ghurlal Patel aged 20 years and resident of Sarasvati Vihar Colony, Trimurti Nagar.
The three had allegedly fed alcohol to the deceased and later started slapping him around and in the fit of alcohol the main accused had caught the neck of the deceased and started compressing it. However, unknown to him, the pressure caused Mahesh to die on the spot. However, the accused had ferried the body to the floor where the deceased stayed and pushed him from the first floor making it appear as if he fell down in the fit of liquor influence and died due to falling.
The surprising fact that came up during investigation is that all the three accused had stayed in their own homes for some days and later they went to Amravati, then to Bhandara and then to a place on the border of Maharashtra MP. It was at Tumsar that the cops arrested them.
The cops whose active hard work led to the uncovering of the murder motive include Police Sub Inspector J S Tiwari, Constables Manoj Joshi, Sankar Kodape, Khemraj Patil, Ashish Kshirsagar, Vidhyadhar Bakshi, Satish Yesankar, Anand Yadav, Sher Singh Rathode, Uday Prakash Tripathi, Atul Talmale, Sidharth Khandare and Anil Tikas.
