In a shocking incident, a 35-year-old labourer living at Kadachiwadi hamlet in Chakan, sodomised and murdered an eight-year-old boy early on Thursday.
The victim was identified as eight-year-old Rohit alias Sonya Gorakh Dukare. Rohit’s uncle alleged that policemen at Chakan police station refused to look for the boy when they went there on Wednesday night to report that he had gone missing. However, Sushil Kadam, inspector-incharge of Chakan police station, denied the allegation.
The incident came to light when Rohit’s body was found near his school early on Thursday. Rohit’s alleged killer, Khadaksingh Janaksingh Panchal (35), a native of Rahal village in Uttar Pradesh, has been arrested by Chakan police.
Son of a labourer, Rohit studied in Std III. His family started looking for him when he did not return home till late Wednesday evening and found his body lying at an isolated area near his school at 1.30 am on Thursday. Panchal was picked up from Pune railway station an hour later.
Rohit’s uncle, Suresh, alleged, “Rohit had left home to play at 4.30 pm on Wednesday.
We noticed he was missing when he did not return home till 6.30 pm. We then went to Chakan police station to file a missing person’s case, but the policemen there refused to file a case and asked us to look for him on our own. They advised us to return the next day if Rohit was not found till then.”
Suresh said, “Then we returned to Kadachiwadi and started looking for Rohit. The search went on till late night and at 1.30 am on Thursday, we found Rohit’s body.”
According to Suresh, “Panchal worked as a labourer at a construction site near Rohit’s house for the last 10 days and lived in a rented room. He would often come near our house and give biscuits and goodies to the children. Thus he made friends with Rohit.
When we started looking for Rohit, a labourer at the construction site said he had seen Rohit with Panchal. We also came to know from his friends that he had been seen with Panchal. We went to Panchal’s room, but he had vanished. We then contacted the contractor of the building. He said Panchal had left for his hometown after collecting his wages on the same day. A few hours later, we found Rohit’s body. We then called up the police and informed them about the entire episode.”
However, inspector Kadam denied the allegation about policemen avoiding taking cognisance of the complaint by Rohit’s family about the boy going missing. He said, “The family approached us after Rohit’s body was found at around 1.30 am on Thursday. During investigation, we found that Panchal had lured Rohit to accompany him to a building under construction near his house with a promise to give cream biscuits.
There Panchal sodomised him and fearing that Rohit would identify him later, strangulated him. We then launched a manhunt for Panchal and located him at Pune railway station where he was put under arrest. He was about to board a train at 3 am and leave for his hometown.”
Kadam said, “During interrogation, Panchal admitted having committed the crime. He is unmarried and had hatched the plan to sodomise Rohit over the last one week. That is why he won over Rohit’s confidence by giving him sweets and goodies.”
A post-mortem was carried out on Rohit’s body at the rural hospital in Chakan. It revealed that Rohit had injuries on his private parts. The report also spoke of “puncture marks and bruises over Rohit’s hands and legs.” It said Rohit died of asphyxia due to strangulation.
Lessons not learnt
The behaviour of the policemen at Chakan police station, who refused to act on the complaint about Rohit’s disappearance by his family, has brought back memories of the Shubham Shirke murder case that took place last year. Shubham (15), a resident of Dighi, had been kidnapped for ransom and murdered allegedly by his three friends. Shubham’s family had alleged that soon after he was kidnapped, they approached the Bhosari police station, but the policemen there refused to act on their complaint saying Dighi area did not fall under their jurisdiction.
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