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Murder of 7-year-old: Engg student sends ransom message to misguide probe
Accused sent a WhatsApp message to Gajanan Ogale, the father of seven-year-old Aditya, to pay ₹20 crore for the victim’s release
To divert the attention of police and its investigation, the engineering student used someone else’s phone to send a ransom message, demanding ₹20 crore from the victim’s parent.
However, the probe officials tracked his activities and nabbed him.
A resident of Masulkar colony in Pimpri, the housing society where the victim lived, Manthan Bhosale (20) sent a message through messenger application using the phone of a labourer.
Bhosale thought that it would divert the course of investigation. He asked the labourer to give his phone for a few minutes on the pretext of making a call. He then sent a WhatsApp message to Gajanan Ogale, the father of seven-year-old Aditya, to pay ₹20 crore for the victim’s release.
The police tracked the labourer, who said that an unknown man had approached him to make calls.
Meanwhile, the police had started monitoring the activities of Bhosale based on the suspicion expressed by the deceased’s father.
“After Aditya went missing, we were tracking the movement of prime accused Bhosale. We had deployed cops in civil dress to monitor his activities. After the confirmation from technical analysis team and inputs from cops tailing him, we arrested Bhosale,” said Ankush Shinde, commissioner, Pimpri-Chinchwad police.
According to Shinde, Bhosale had developed enmity towards Ogale after facing humiliation in the past.
“This was the main reason for him to take such an extreme step to settle scores,” said Shinde.
According to officials, Ogale a few months ago had called a housing society members’ meeting to discuss how to prevent nuisance by Bhosale. It was alleged that in the meeting Ogle exposed Bhosale in front of his parents and residents.
Nandurkar said, “Bhosale felt humiliated and decided to teach Ogale a lesson.’’
Bhosale has been charged in connection with the abduction and murder of Aditya.
The Pimpri-Chinchwad police said that there were complaints against Bhosale of stalking girls in the neighbourhood. “He is a drug addict and has in the past created nuisance for the other society members,” said Satish Nandurkar, inspector, Crime Branch.
When the deceased went missing, Ogale registered a case at Pimpri police station and told the police that the accused had an heated conversation with the family in the past.
