Family demands CBI probe

The wife of additional collector Yashwant Sonawane, who was burnt alive by fuel adulteration mafia near Manmad on Tuesday, is unhappy with the investigation into his killing.

The wife of additional collector Yashwant Sonawane, who was burnt alive by fuel adulteration mafia near Manmad on Tuesday, is unhappy with the investigation into his killing.

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“I have no faith in the local police. The CBI [Central Bureau of Investigation] should probe my husband’s murder,” Vijaya Sonawane told the Hindustan Times from her Nashik home on Thursday.

Sonawane, 46, was burnt alive, allegedly by fuel adulterators, at Manmad, when he tried stopping one of them from mixing kerosene with petrol at Panewadi village near Nashik.

His family suspects that the killing was planned and has been demanding that the role of Rajendra Kale, Sonawane’s personal assistant, and his driver, Kailash Gawli, be probed. Kale and Gawli were with Sonawane when he was assaulted, but fled when he was set afire.

“There is also a case for looking into the behaviour and phone records of the tehsildar of Nandgaon and Sonwane’s driver and personal assistant,” Anand Dani, Sonawane’s brother-in-law, said.

The family was also angry with the district collector P Velarasu for saying that the raid Sonawane conducted was not an official raid. “It is wrong on his part to say that. My husband was an additional collector and he acted when he saw illegal activity happening,” Vijaya said.

Sonawane, a Dalit from Lakhimpur in Dindori, was cremated in Nashik on January 25.

“After he died, everyone started calling him a martyr. His last rites should have been conducted with full state honours but that did not happen,” Vijay said.