Thane police crack Kasara Ghat double murder, arrest four from Shirdi

Thane crime branch team arrests four persons in Shirdi in connection with a double murder where bodies were disposed of at two different locations.

Thane: After two months of investigation, a Thane crime branch team on Friday arrested four persons in Shirdi in connection with a double murder where the bodies were disposed of at two different locations in Kasara Ghat. One of the two men was allegedly murdered for harassing a woman whom the accused claimed they considered a sister, while the other was killed after he witnessed the murder.

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The arrested accused were identified as Manoj Shivappa Nashi (24), Kunal Prakash Mudaliar (23), Prashant Ambadas Khulule (25) and Feroz Dildar Pathan (19), all residents of Ramnagar in Shirdi. The two murdered youngsters were identified as Sufiyan Ghone (33) from Loni and Sahil Pathan (21) from Songaon, both in Ahmednagar. The ‘sister’ of the accused who faced harassment lived in Loni.

On June 19, the Kasara police had received information from villagers that two bodies had been thrown into a pit along the Mumbai-Nashik highway. “One of the victims had been attacked with a sharp weapon while the other was strangulated,” said Ramesh Tadvi, senior police inspector. “We started investigating but it was tough since there were no CCTVs covering that part of the highway. So we began looking at missing persons records at all the police stations around.”

Meanwhile, the police found the key of a Mahindra Bolero in one of the deceased’s pockets. “We contacted the Mahindra Bolero factory to check whether the key could help us get the car registration details,” said Tadvi. “Within a few days, the car manufacturer sent us those, and we learned that the car was from Loni.” The police then spent almost two weeks in Loni and finally reached Sahil Pathan, who, they discovered, had been missing along with his friend Sufiyan Ghone for almost a month and a half.

The search for the accused then began. Through several technical details, including call records and the social media accounts of the deceased, the police identified Nashi, Mudaliar and Feroz Pathan. They were picked up and after interrogation, confessed to the murder.

“Sahil Pathan allegedly used to message and call the ‘sister’ of the accused,” said Tadvi. “Angered by this, they decided to teach him a lesson and summoned him to an unknown place in Ahmednagar on the evening of June 17. Pathan went there accompanied by Ghone. The accused and their ‘sister’ beat up Pathan and later attacked him with a hammer till he vomited blood and fell unconscious. Ghone, who witnessed the murder, said he was going to the police, whereupon the accused strangled him with a hood that one of them was wearing.”

On June 18, the group packed the bodies in double blankets and shawls and transported them to Kasara Ghat, where they were dumped at two different locations on June 18.

While the woman continues to be on the run, the four accused were arrested on Friday and produced before a local court today. The court remanded them to police custody for five days.