Nagpur | Journalist's mother, daughter killed over dispute of Rs 7,000

Mother and daughter of a journalist with an online news portal in Nagpur, Maharashtra, were brutally murdered by a grocery shop owner, over a dispute of Rs 7,000 that the victim had given to the accused's mother.

Reporter Ravikant Kamble's mother Usha Kamble (60) and his 18-month old daughter were missing since Saturday evening. On Saturday midnight, the reporter had lodged a missing complaint in a police station. However, their dead bodies were found stuffed in sacks in a nullah outside the city.

Ravikant Kamble works with Nagpur Today, a news portal, and generally reports on crime stories. His wife is a policewoman and the couple has twin daughters.

According to the police, the accused Ganesh Shahu's mother had borrowed Rs 7000 from Kamble's mother on interest. The police said, on Saturday, at around 5 pm Usha Kamle had left the house with her granddaughter and was missing since then.

Since they did not return home till late night, Ravikant Kamble lodged a missing complaint. The police then begin the probe and find that the victims were seen near a grocery shop of Shahu. The police, hence, over suspicion detained Shahu and questioned him when he confessed to having committed the offence. They were found murdered within a few hours of the complaint.

"We have arrested Shahu," he told us during interrogation that he got infuriated when Usha Kamble came outside his grocery shop and started abusing. "He then called them inside the house and strangulated them. The bodies were later stuffed in sacks and thrown in nullah around 3 kilometers from Kamble's house," said Sameer Kadam, Deputy Commissioner of police (crime branch).

It is gathered that a Bolero vehicle parked in front of Shahu's shop had blood strains on the inner inside. "We are yet to check if the vehicle is in Shahu's name and if the blood strains had anything to do with the two deaths," Kadam said.

Surprisingly, in order to cover up the crime, while Ravikant was looking for his missing daughter and mother, Shahu visited his home and told Ravikant that his mother had come to his shop and Shahu had given Rs 7000 to her, which his mother had given to him to hand over to Usha.