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On hunt for Ahmednagar man killed and dumped in Godavari: police
The couple -- Deepak Barde and Saniya Shaikh – eloped from their hometown Srirampur, Ahmednagar, in the last week of July
The Ahmednagar police have launched a massive search operation of a 31-year-old man who was killed for eloping with a 19-year-old woman.
The couple -- Deepak Barde and Saniya Shaikh – eloped from their hometown Srirampur, Ahmednagar, in the last week of July and returned in the first week of August.
Following their return, Saniya’s family, who were enraged over the relationship, separated the two. She was sent to Pune to live with her maternal uncle soon after. On August 30, on receiving a phone call from Saniya, Deepak came to Pune and went missing thereafter.
Deepak’s father Ravsaheb Dada Barde filed a missing person’s complaint at Supa police station, in Srirampur, on August 31. The FIR states that his son was involved with Saniya, which had enraged the family.
Following the missing complaint report, Ahmednagar Police arrested seven members of the Shaikh family for allegedly killing Deepak Barde on September 1.
However, it’s only 12 days later that Saniya’s family confessed to the crime, on Tuesday.
Both families of the victim and the accused live in a small hamlet in Srirampur in Ahmednagar district.
The suspects include the woman’s father Majnu Babban Shaikh, her uncles Aziz and Raju, her maternal uncle Imran Abbas Shaikh, who lives in Wagholi, Pune, and other relatives and locals known to the family.
The Bardes, who belong to the Bhil tribe, are an agrarian family. Deepak was unemployed. Disapproving of their daughter’s liaison with Deepak, they allegedly first kidnapped him while he was enroute to Pune and then murdered him, said cops.
The deceased’s father, in his statement to the police also revealed, “When they eloped a month ago, her maternal uncle Imran lodged a missing complaint at Supa police station.”
Police arrested Saniya’s maternal uncle and a few other relatives subsequently. In the course of the interrogation, the arrested suspects revealed to the police that they had killed Deepak and threw his body into the Godavari.
Ahmednagar superintendent of police (SP) Manoj Patil confirmed that the inter-faith relationship was the reason for the murder. “We have arrested seven members of the family including father, son, brother-in-law and four others on charges of murder which took place on August 31. The 19-year-old’s father has confessed to killing Barde with a blunt object, while others participated in the crime. The body was dumped into the river afterwards. Six boats have been deployed for carrying out a search operation. We have yet to trace the remains,” Patil said.
The police have filed case under Indian Penal Code sections 342 (wrongful confinement), 363 (kidnapping), 34 (criminal act committed by several persons with same intention), and others. They are likely to add sections pertaining to murder in the next few days, officials said.
