Elderly shepherd abducted, murdered by neighbour

Nagpur: Rambhau Neware, 65, was kidnapped by a neighbour and his three aides on Monday from a field near Jamtha in Hingna over an old dispute between them. The senior citizen’s body, with the head and face smashed, was found at Wadner in Hinganghat taluka in Wardha on Tuesday.
Police said Chhotu Hinge, arrested by Wadner police along with three others, allegedly murdered Neware over suspicion that he practised witchcraft, and had cast a dark spell on him. Hinge, who used to fall ill frequently, held Neware’s black magic responsible for his ill health. This presumption of Hinge led to frequent quarrels between the Neware and Hinge families.
Neware, a shepherd, was tending to his animals in the field when he was abducted. His family was clueless since Neware did not return in the evening. A customer at a nearby pan kiosk was the first one to share some clues with the Newares. He told them someone had spotted a few men forcibly taking away the victim in a car.
Neware’s son Rakesh approached Hingna police station to lodge a complaint of kidnapping. Though police had registered an offence of kidnapping, it’s not clear whether there was any serious effort to search for the victim.
On Tuesday morning, Wadner police of Wardha district spotted the unidentified body in a nullah. Senior inspector Ashish Gajbhiye of Wadner police station said there was a chit in the victim’s pocket with a mobile number scribbled on it. “The mobile number belonged to a man who had met him a day ago at Jamtha,” said the PI.
“It’s learnt that the man had left his mobile number with the victim to coordinate with him later for a marriage proposal. We then came to know that the body belonged to someone from Jamtha, following which he was identified with the help of Butibori and Hingna police,” said Gajbhiye.
After talking to the family members, Gajbhiye and his team arrested Hinge, Sagar and two others.