3 weeks Ago By Gitesh Shelke
Pune: The city police on Tuesday arrested two individuals in connection with the murder of 73-year-old Bibvewadi resident at his farm in Sangrun off Lavasa Road last week. The arrested suspects were identified as Satish Vitthal Khadke (36) of Sangrun and his friend, Kalpana Wankhede (40). They were arrested from Khamgaon in Buldhana after police monitored their mobile phones and tracked their location.
Khadke was cultivating the farmland owned by Narayan Pandurang Mankar, the victim, based on an agreement to share the produce. The police said that on the morning of April 11, Khadke went to Mankar's residence in the city and the two left for Sangrun in the latter's car to attend to some work at the farm. When Mankar did not return till late at night, his family visited the farm and found him murdered in his car.
The Uttamnagar police then took over the investigation and registered a case of robbery and murder. They are yet to recover the victim's gold chain, finger rings and other jewellery. Preliminary investigations by a police team led by senior crime branch inspector Vijay Kumbhar and sub-inspector Gaurav Dev revealed that Khadke plotted the crime with the intent to rob Mankar's jewellery to raise money and clear a loan of Rs5 lakh he had taken from Wankhede.
Kumbhar told TOI, "Wankhede has been arrested for helping Khadke in selling these ornaments to a jewellery store on Sinhagad Road." He added, "Wankhede hails from Khamgaon, but has been residing at Nanded Phata for the last few years. She was pestering Khadke for some time now about returning the money he took from her.
Khadke told us that Wankhede borrowed over Rs5 lakh from some people and gave it to him. The lenders started pursuing her for the money and she in turn did the same to Khadke." Kumbhar said Khadke had no money to return to Wankhede and plotted Mankar's murder as the latter would wear a lot of jewellery often.
"Khadke was alone at the spot when he assaulted Mankar with a sharp weapon and robbed his gold chain, rings, and more. He handed over these items to Wankhede, and she sold them to a jewellery store on Sinhagad Road," the officer said. Police said that after selling the jewellery, the two fled to Buldhana, but the police managed to track them after they switched on a mobile phone.
The crime branch team arrested them and later handed them over to the Uttamnagar police..
