Pune: Five booked for killing worker and passing it off as hit-and-run

Five men killed a casual worker, on October 10 and threw his body into a ditch in a bid to pass it off as a hit-and-run accident. The Uttamnagar police on Monday arrested five men on the charge of murdering 22-year-old Omkar Laxman Supekar.

"Supekar and the five arrested men hail from Pangharun village near Uttamnagar. The assailants were Supekar's colleagues working as drivers and helpers with a sand mining unit in Pangharun along the Mutha river bed," TOI quoted senior inspector Sunil Jaitapurkar of the Uttamnagar police as saying.

"An analysis of the spot where Supekar was found dead revealed that the death was not the result of a hit-and-run accident. An advance postmortem also stated the victim died of injuries to his face and head caused by a heavy and blunt object. The injuries did not seem to have been caused by accident. After disposing of the body in the ditch, the five men also threw away Supekar's blanket, clothes and mobile phone," said Jaitapurkar.

Jaitapurkar said the police established the victim's identity and worked on the last seen theory, in which they learnt the victim was with the five men. During interrogation, the suspects confessed to having killed Supekar after an altercation over some issue.

"It was revealed that the deceased and the arrested men pick-up a fight over a trivial issue while having their dinner on October 10. The men then hit Supekar with a heavy and blunt object. It was a fatal blow," Jaitapurkar added. Those arrested were identified as Pappu Pawar (30), Balu Gajare (34), Nikhil Chaware (19), Vijay Gajare (40), Sachin Kapase (41).