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2 absconding accused in Purnekar murder case arrested in UP
The accused, Santosh Kanaujiya, 41, and Amit Singh, 32, alias Paplu, were traced to the Naini area of Prayagraj
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Thane: Two absconding accused in the murder of Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Pradeep Purnekar were brought to Thane on Sunday after police obtained transit remand from a local Prayagraj court. They were arrested on Friday in Uttar Pradesh by a joint team of the Thane police’s Special Investigation Team (SIT) and the Uttar Pradesh Special Task Force (STF).
The accused, Santosh Kanaujiya, 41, and Amit Singh, 32, alias Paplu, were traced to the Naini area of Prayagraj. With their arrests, five people have now been held in the case. The other three accused, identified as Papya Shinde, Nikhil Yadav and Nitesh Pawar, are already in police custody.
Kanaujiya lives in Manpada, Thane, while Singh works as an autorickshaw driver and resides in Bhayandar.
As reported by HT earlier, Purkenar, a former corporator and vibhag pramukh (division head) of the Shiv Sena (UBT), was shot dead by masked assailants inside his office in Thane on September 29, around 9.30pm. They then fled on two-wheelers and later allegedly switched to an Alto car to escape towards Goa.
The police subsequently traced Nikhil Yadav and Nitesh Pawar to a cattle farm in Pen and arrested them. Kanaujiya and Singh managed to evade arrest and fled to Uttar Pradesh.
Investigators had seized the revolver, mobile phone, two-wheelers and Alto car allegedly used in the crime from the Kalamboli area last week.
The police also sent teams to Uttar Pradesh as Kanaujiya and Singh are from the Cholapur area of Varanasi. A lookout notice had been issued against Kanaujiya as the search continued.
The duo will be produced before a local court on Monday, with the police expected to seek their custody for further interrogation. Investigators hope the questioning will help establish the roles of the accused and determine the motive behind the murder.
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