5 years on, Sindhudurg accidental death turns out to be murder

The Mumbai crime branch recently received a tip-off that one of the accused had allegedly boasted about murdering Ashpaq Mulani during a drinking session

Mumbai: The Mumbai police’s crime branch has arrested four people for their alleged roles in a 2021 murder in Sindhudurg district that local police had earlier concluded was an accidental death.

Ashpaq Mulani’s body was found 21 days after he had gone missing in December 2021.

Crime branch officers said the victim, Ashpaq Mulani, 35, was allegedly murdered in Sindhudurg in December 2021. His killers subsequently dumped his body in Pondaghat in Kankavli. However, after finding Mulani’s motorcycle at the mountain pass, the local police had concluded that he had died in an accident.

Mulani’s body was found 21 days after he had gone missing. The Solapur resident used to help people get loans, police said. After his body was found, the local police had concluded that he had met with an accident while returning home after meeting one of the accused.

However, the Mumbai crime branch recently received a tip-off that one of the accused had allegedly boasted about murdering Mulani during a drinking session. “We detained the four accused, identified as Manoj Bandage, Surendra Sonwadekar, Atish More, and Hrithuraj Shetty,” said a police officer.

According to the police, the accused confessed during interrogation that they had killed Mulani over a monetary dispute. The officer said the group had planned to start a loan disbursement business in the Konkan region, but accused Mulani of taking money from a client and not sharing it with them.

“They called Ashpaq to a hotel in Kankavli and then killed him. They then took his body in an SUV and dumped it in the ghat. Later, they also drove his bike and threw it in the ghat to show it as an accident,” said the police officer. Two other accused, Amit Raut and Manoj Bhandari, are absconding, the officer added.

All four arrested accused have been handed over to the Kankavli police, who are investigating the case. The Kankavli police will now invoke murder charges, as they had earlier filed a charge sheet stating it was an accident and had booked the deceased himself.