Navi Mumbai blind murder cracked, two accused held in 11 days

Calling it a ‘blind murder’, with no clues or digital proofs, the police said it was not only difficult to identify the accused but it was also a challenge to trace them. While one was held in Mumbai, the other fled to Pune, from where he was apprehended on Tuesday, the police said

Navi Mumbai: Nearly 10 days after a 31-year-old man was found dead near the Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation’s (NMMC’s) office in Belapur, the police tracked down two daily wage labourers for allegedly killing him after an altercation on April 17. Calling it a ‘blind murder’, with no clues or digital proofs, the police said it was not only difficult to identify the accused but it was also a challenge to trace them. While one was held in Mumbai, the other fled to Pune, from where he was apprehended on Tuesday, the police said.

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According to the police, the victim’s body was found under a bridge near Killa Signal, opposite the Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation headquarters in CBD Belapur on April 17. He had sustained fatal head injuries, allegedly inflicted with a stone. Subsequently, a murder case was registered with the CBD Belapur Police.

“With no immediate leads on the identity of the deceased or the assailants, a special detection team was formed. Investigators reviewed footage from nearly 60 to 65 CCTV cameras in the vicinity, piecing together the movements of the victim and suspects,” said a police officer.

The deceased was later identified as Akash Prakash Rathod, 31, a native of Navsari in Gujarat who had been living as a transient in the city, the officer added.

Acting on specific intelligence inputs, police tracked down the two accused, both daily-wage labourers who frequently moved between Mumbai and Navi Mumbai. Subhash Dhurve, 27, originally from Amravati, was arrested on April 24 from among a group of labourers sleeping near Cotton Green Railway Station in Mumbai. The second accused, Arvind Sakpal alias Raja, 35, a resident of Pune district, was apprehended on April 28 from Gultekdi Market Yard in Pune, where he had been hiding.

The police’s investigation has revealed that the accused and the victim were known to each other and often quarrelled. On the night of the incident, an argument allegedly escalated, and later, while the victim was asleep, the two are believed to have attacked him with a stone.

Both accused have been remanded in police custody till May 1, the police said.