The 60-year-old owner of a popular music store in Pune was allegedly stabbed to death in his first-floor apartment sometime between Saturday night and Sunday morning.
PUNE: The 60-year-old owner of a popular music store in Pune was allegedly stabbed to death in his first-floor apartment sometime between Saturday night and Sunday morning. The police could not ascertain the motive for the alleged murder of Suresh Shridhar Alurkar till late Sunday evening.
Alurkar, who owned Alurkar Music House, was often referred to as the local ‘big daddy’ of classical music.
He was found dead in his flat (number 39, B building) of Swapnanagari residential colony, on Karve Road in Erandwane. His murder came to light when a neighbour, Ashok Padhye, tried to find out why he had not opened his shop on Saturday evening and Sunday morning, the police said.
“I thought he may be unwell and so went to his apartment. I knocked on the door, but there was no response. So I pushed the door, which was open,” Padhye said. He entered the apartment and saw Alurkar lying in a pool of blood, Padhye said. “His hands and legs were tied. I rushed out and immediately called the police.”
Senior inspector Jaiwant Deshmukh of Deccan Gymkhana police station said that Alurkar was stabbed to death. He said the police have recovered a knife from the apartment. The police suspect it was used to commit the alleged crime.
The owner of a stationery shop near Alurkar Music House on Karve Road said he saw Alurkar shutting his shop on Saturday afternoon and going home with some eatables.
“We’ve not seen him after that.”
Alurkar was staying alone in the three-room apartment. His wife Anuradha, sons Vineet and Varun stay separately in the city.
There are 12 apartments in the building; Alurkar stayed on the first floor. He had also hired the adjacent flat to store cassettes and discs.
Alurkar had a rich collection of cassettes of classical Marathi songs, CDs of stories, the works of Pu La Deshpande, DM Mirajdar, Va Pu Kale, Pandit Bhimsen Joshi, Pandit Jasraj and Malini Rajurkar. He had also reproduced DVDs of the famous play, Ghasiram Kotwal. He introduced cassettes on ceremonial installation of Ganpati idols and Satyanarayan Pooja in 1981. They became an instant hit among Puneites.
Alurkar had also made available PL Deshpande’s renderings of one-act plays, talks, narrations, harmonium et al, on audio/video cassettes. These included titles like Batatyachi Chal, Asa Mee Asa Mee, and Nivdak Pu La. Alurkar was the first to bestow on PL Deshpande the popular title of Maharashtrache Ladke Vyaktimatv (Maharashtra’s Favourite Personality) in advertisements for the cassettes.
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