Are pipes more costly than my son's life? Asks teen's mother killed by Metro guards

The family at their Milind Nagar home. Pics/Sayyed Sameer Abedi

If he had committed theft, why not turn him over to the law? What right did they have to beat up my son? Those who murdered my son should never come out of jail," cried Rama Bansode, the 39-year-old father of Aniket, 17, who was beaten by the security guards at the Powai Metro site, for allegedly stealing pipes. The guards on duty - Umesh Parab, 38, Sujat Ali Naushad Ali, 26, Sachin Mandavkar, 38, and Sandeep Jadhav, 30 - have now been arrested. The police said that on Tuesday night, one of the guards saw Aniket stealing a pipe and then beat him up, before leaving him outside a local shop.

Rama Bansode with Aniket's picture

Bansode says that Jadhav, one of the security guards, lives near their home in Milind Nagar and, when Aniket fainted, they brought him near his house as Jadhav knew the boy and also where he lived. Bansode lives in Milind Nagar with his wife Ratna, a housewife, and children. He works as a housekeeping staff at a private firm. Ratna showed mid-day a video of Jadhav beating up Aniket. "Does a pipe cost more than my son's life? Is that why these people are killing him so ruthlessly? They attacked him with wood, bamboo sticks, belts and an iron rod."

She added, "There were so many people who were standing and watching the men beat up my son. Had even one of them tried to stop the beating, my son would have been alive today." Aniket's uncle Chandrakant Bansode said that Jadhav is known for hooliganism. He said, "None of the security guards were in their uniform at the time. Who does duty without uniform?"

The family says that on Tuesday evening, Aniket had stepped out for a walk as was usual for him. When he didn't return till midnight, Ratna called his cellphone, but it had been switched off. The next morning, at 6.30 am, someone rang her bell and informed Ratna that Aniket had slept at a nearby shop gate. When the family brought the still-unconscious Aniket home, and he showed no signs of waking up, they took him to Ghatkopar's Rajawadi Hospital, where a doctor declared him dead on arrival.

It was after the doctor called the police, on seeing the bruises on Aniket's body, and the police conducted an investigation, that the Bansodes found out what had happened.