Maharashtra: Goons kill drinking partner, 12th murder registered this month

NAGPUR: Gaurav Khadatkar, 28, was thrashed to death with different objects, including stones and broken tiles, near Shahu garden at Somwari quarters shortly after Monday midnight.
Around 12 murders this month have undone the efforts of city police’s ‘Operation Crackdown Phase II’ in which around 11,823 criminals were checked.
TOI has learnt that the culprits killed Khadatkar as they got suspicious about his intentions after seeing him talking to someone else on the phone. Khadatkar, who was consuming liquor with the goons, was pinned down and murdered on the assumption that he was summoning someone to attack one of them.
The most worrisome part of the murder was the fact that it was being engineered by an externee, Kartik Choubey, having almost a dozen offences against him. Khadatkar had a wordy duel with Choubey and one of his aides Sachin Ingle who has been booked in this case for conspiracy.
In order to tackle the setback, Sakkardara cops plunged into an intense search which was also followed by a dramatic chasing of goons who tried to flee by injuring a constable, Roshan Choudhury, who sustained a fracture in his leg.
The goons, Choubey, Shahbaz Khan, Sahil Shaikh alias Raja and Mrunal Bhapkar, were fleeing on a scooter when they were intercepted by API Awhad and his team in Chandan Nagar.
The goons were booked by Sakkardara police for murder and also at Imambada police for attacking the police team.
In yet another development, Dhantoli police have registered an offence of murder against Ramu Sawale for stoning his friend-turned-partner-in-crime Pankaj Baisware to death on June 6 at an abandoned house at Dr Daji Marg close to Yeshwant Stadium.
Based on the CCTV footage found at an apartment, around 500 meters away from the place where the body was found, Dhantoli police, under Inspector Dhananjay Patil and Asst PI Sanjay Pardeshi, identified the deceased and nabbed accused Sawale.
Baisware, who ran a roadside laundry, was engaged in petty thefts with Sawale. A fight while sharing the booty led to the murder.
There was yet another murder scare in Dhantoli when a vagabond attacked another roadside dweller with a stone before fleeing the spot on Tuesday. Cops from Dhantoli station managed to save the injured by rushing him for medical assistance at government medical college and hospital.
The dozen murders this month prompted city police chief BK Upadhyay to intensify the ongoing ‘Operation Crackdown Phase II’. He has now issued fresh instructions to regularly check the residences of persons accused even in two cases apart from conducting combing operations to target hardened goons.