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Ahmednagar murder: Police procure CCTV footage
The footage recovered from a CCTV at a petrol pump in Nighoj, Ahmednagar district, is significant evidence
Days after Rukmini Ransingh (19) was set on fire on May 1 in Ahmednagar, police have recovered the crucial closed-circuit television (CCTV) footage of her husband Mangesh Ransingh (23), acquiring petrol from a nearby petrol pump on the day of the incident. He carried the petrol in a plastic bottle which was damaged in the fire, according to the police.
The footage recovered a week ago from a CCTV installed at Bharat petrol pump fuel station at Malganga Devi Kunda road in Nighoj, Ahmednagar district, is significant evidence, according to police officials.
While the police have gained crucial leads in the investigation, the family of the victim is still counting losses even after 20 days post the incident. The family members of Rukmini Ransingh were demonised after her husband told the police that they had set them both on fire for having an inter-caste marriage. Mangesh, who is undergoing treatment for 40 per cent burns at the Sassoon General Hospital, is now a suspect in Rukmini’s murder case.
Having moved into the rented house in Diwali in 2018, the family of five used to live in a rectangular room divided into three compartments by two partial walls that served as three rooms. One room has space enough for not more than five people if they stand shoulder-to-shoulder.
The middle room served as a kitchen where Rukmini was cooking lunch. Four children were in the first room, where the entrance door is located, during the incident. While her father was away, Rukmini’s mother had gone to a tailor’s shop to get a blouse stitched for an upcoming family wedding in Allahabad. In the third room, the broken ceiling allegedly served as an entry point to the house for Mangesh.
The room is now a dusty skeleton of what used to be the Bhartiya family’s house. Burnt pieces of clothes were seen strewn in the first room as the earthen stove in the second room was covered in soot. Broken glass bangles, ash, burnt plastic and clothes were lying where Rukmini was sitting and cooking on the fateful day.
“Rukmini was cooking on a chulha (earthen stove). As Mangesh poured petrol over her, drops of it landed directly in the stove fire and (effectively) within moments she was ablaze,” said Maneesh Kalwaniya, assistant superintendent of police, sub-divisional police officer of Ahmednagar rural division of Ahmednagar police, who is investigating the case.
“The case started unravelling after the ambulance driver came forward and told us what had conspired. When she was first brought into the ambulance, he was giving her water when he asked her who did this to her. She had told him that Mangesh had done it. He had spoken to Mangesh as well. We have recorded statements from the doctor as well as the ambulance driver,” said Kalwaniya.
“He (Mangesh) immediately poured water upon himself as he was also burnt. We were all watching a song video on YouTube on my mother’s phone near the door,” said Ritendra Saroj (9), who is the eldest among the four children present in the house during the incident. Ritendra is one among the five people whose statements were recorded in the court under Section 164 of the Code of Criminal Procedure.
“Rukmini had come home two-three days before the incident. When she came home, her thighs had swollen and turned black and blue, her hand had a burn mark where hot oil had been poured, she told me. Mangesh used to beat her up constantly,” said mother of the deceased woman, Nirmala Saroj, a woman in her 40s.
“I raised that child and saw her burnt in Mangesh’s arms, before passing out that day. That is the last time I saw her. When I tried to go near her, Mangesh bit my thumb. I woke up in the Parner government hospital after that,” said Rama Ramphal Saroj Bhartiya, father of Rukmini and a man in his late 40s.
On Tuesday (May 14), a local court in Parner has sought the presence of Mangesh in order to close the case of attempted murder filed based on his complaint. Two of Rukmini’s arrested relatives, Ghanshyam Saroj and Surendra Bhartiya are likely to be released after the case is closed.
