1 petrol pump worker axed to death, 1 injured, cash Rs1 lakh stolen

Nagpur: Masked robbers, armed with an axe, decamped with cash Rs1 lakh from a petrol pump on Hingna-Amravati Outer Ring Road after murdering 62-year-old Pandhari Bhandarkar, and leaving his colleague Leeladhar Gohote, 52, fighting for life.
This is the first incident of robbery with murder during the lockdown period. Senior cops suspect robbery was the main motive behind the murder, as many people are in desperate need for cash due to serious unemployment in and around the city and in rural parts.
The robbers also took away the CCTV recorder systems and damaged the locker before managing to lay their hands on the cash. Police said the robbers also struck the locker with an axe, leaving a deep mark on it.
The workers, who were attacked in their sleep, were inside the office at the petrol pump, which operates round the clock. After three other colleagues left by 11pm on Wednesday, the two elderly workers had stayed back for the night shift.
Gohote, whose condition is critical, was financing his son’s engineering studies by working at the pump. Petrol pump owner Sanjay Ugale has admitted him in a reputed private hospital.
The goons, likely to be four in number, possibly came in a car. The investigating team suspects the robbers had earlier attempted to break open an ATM outlet at Bazaargaon, where their images have been captured in CCTV footage. The robbers had tried to use the axe to break the ATM open for over an hour but could not succeed.
The same gang of robbers also appears to have attempted to break into a bank at Wadi, but failed there too. Experienced cops said the suspects could be from neighbouring talukas. They feel the goons were desperate after failing in their first two attempts.
A trucker, who stopped to fill fuel, was the first to spot the gory scene with Gohote and Bhandarkar lying in a pool of blood splashed across the floor.
Hingna police reached the spot and informed owner Ugale. Both the employees were lying motionless. As Bhandarkar was showing no signs of life, cops rushed Gohote to Government Medical College and Hospital, from where he was later shifted to a private hospital.
Hingna and MIDC police, apart from crime branch, have started rounding up suspects. MIDC police have registered an offence of murder and robbery.