Raigad police arrest three including woman for murder at Wadkhal lodge

The police searched every state transport bus going towards Panvel and caught them in one of the buses

Navi Mumbai

Raigad police arrest three including woman for murder at Wadkhal lodge

Local Crime Branch (LCB) of Raigad nabbed three accused who were planning to flee to Uttar Pradesh after killing a man brutally in a lodge at Wadkhal in Raigad district. The murder was committed on Tuesday night at around 9 pm in Sawali loadge at Wadkhal after which the trio fled from there.

The deceased identified as Dharmendra Kushwah (40) from Madhya Pradesh, worked in the lodge wherein he was murdered while the accused identified as Chandrajeet Jhankuram Bhardwaj (30) and Harishankar Lalchand Rajbhar (19) from Uttar Pradesh and Anjudevi Saroj Chauhan (32) from Jharkhand ran a tea stall few metres away from the lodge.

Bharadwaj and Chauhan used to stay together in Wadkhal and were in a relationship and Rajbhar had recently joined the duo in their room. Cousin brother of Khushwah was the manager of the Sawali lodge and he had gone to home town hence Khushwah was temporarily managing the affaires of the lodge. At multiple instances, Khushwah had got physically intimate with Chauhan which had irked Bharadwaj. A week back Bharadwaj had picked up a fight with Khushwah and had threatened to kill him following which Bharadwaj purchased a new knife to execute the murder.

On Tuesday night Bharadwaj asked Chauhan to go meet Khushwah in one of the rooms of the lodge. While Bharadwaj and Rajbhar followed her to the room. After a while, Rajbhar and Bharadwaj barged into the room with the knife. They pushed Khushwah on the ground and closed his mouth and one of the accused sat on his chest and slit his throat and then chopped off his private part.

“After the murder, the trio fled from the spot. While the lodge was on the first floor, there was a restaurant on the ground floor wherein Khushwah regularly went for dinner. Since Khushwah did not turn up for dinner even by 10.30 pm, one of the workers from the hotel went to check on him and found him dead in room number 115 of the lodge,” police sub inspector Vishal Shirke from LCB said. After the police reached the spot, they checked the cctv footage and identified the accused.

“We got their mobile numbers and found it to be switched off. We then searched their tea stall and got some identity cards belonging to the accused and we started the search for them. We got information that they had hired a private vehicle to Pen. After reaching Pen, we got an information that they had boarded a state transport bus towards Panvel and we started checking each and every state transport bus going towards PAnvel and finally caught them in one of the buses. The accused were planning to flee to their native place,” police inspector Balasaheb Khade from LCB said.