Pune: A bullock cart racing enthusiast from Navlakh Umbre in Maval was found murdered on Thursday and his 23-year-old tenant was arrested by the Pimpri Chinchwad crime branch on charges of abduction and murder . Victim Pandit Jadhav (52) was abducted on Nov 14. His tenant, Suraj Wankhede, and an accomplice strangled the victim to death on the same day and burnt his body in Wahagaon in Khed taluka.
On Thursday, Wankhede took the police to the spot, where a few remains of the body were found and sent for forensic examination. "The suspect had demanded Rs50 lakh through messages sent to the victim's family. He told the police that he had committed the crime over a personal reason," senior inspector Devendra Chavan of the anti-extortion cell of the Pimpri Chinchwad crime branch told TOI.
Chavan said that Jadhav's family members were worried after the abduction and did not alert the police. "Our informant gave us a tip-off that Jadhav had been abducted and the suspects were using his mobile to message and demand Rs50 lakh from the family," he said. The police first took Jadhav's family into confidence.
"With the help of cellphone numbers, technical analysis and CCTV camera footage, we zeroed in on Wankhede and took him into custody on Thursday," he said. Chavan said that during questioning, Wankhede admitted to abducting and murdering Jadhav on Nov 14. He strangled Jadhav to death with a rope in the Talegaon MIDC area.
"Wankhede then contacted the victim's family and took his SUV .