Five arrested for beheading youngster in Pune

The Hadapsar police claimed to have cracked the mystery of a headless body found near a well at Pawarbaug Housing Society on the Pune-Solapur Road on January 25. According to the police, the body belonged to a certain Arjun Lappa Pujari, 21, of Ghorpadigaon.

The deceased’s friend Rohit Hira Mudgal, 21, Mahesh Govindappa Bovi, 19, and Vicky Ramesh Potana, 18, of Mudaliyar School in Ghorpadi; Raghu Chandra Vadar, 18, of Kalashankar in Ghorpadi and Ramesh Durgappa Hirekaru, 32, of Survey Number 66 Dhobarwadi, Ghorpadi have been arrested.

Senior inspector Pandarinath Mandhare of Hadapsar police station told DNA, “The deceased had sustained two stab injuries on his chest and abdomen. On the basis of the description of dress and locket (tayit) that Pujari was wearing, his mother, who had filed a missing complaint at Mundhwa police station, and Mudgal recognised the body.”

The official said that the crime was solved after apprehending Bovi who had given the deceased’s cellphone to his relative in Hubli. Mudgal and Bovi were arrested on the same day of offence and the head was recovered from a nalla near Sopanbaug.

Constables Santosh Mohite, Dattatray Telange and Pradip Gurav arrested Potana and Vadar from Hubli. Hirekaru, the kingpin of the gang who abetted and hatched the plan, was arrested from Kolhapur.

The motive of murder was that Ramesh and the deceased mother Parvati had an affair and the former had given blood money of Rs5 lakh to the suspects to kill Pujari.

All the suspects have been sent to Yerawada central prison.