70-year-old man beaten to death on suspicion of stealing pigeons

Ramchandra Raut

A 70-year-old man was mercilessly beaten to death by a group of eight people over suspicion that he had stolen pigeons from the accused's home in Vasai on Friday night. Police have arrested eight accused, including 3 women. Ramchandra Raut, a Vasai Ranagaon resident, was rushed to the local hospital but declared dead before admission. On Raut's son complaint, the Vasai Gaon police station have booked and arrested the accused.

The accused have been identified as Mayur Gharat, Sachin Gharat, Avinash Tandel, Abhishek Kolekar, Surekha Kolekar, Ranjna Tandel, Raju Kolekar and Rina Sachin Gharat. Vasai police have booked these accused under Sections 302 (murder), 452b (house trespass for assault), 143 (punishment), 144 (unlawful assembly with a deadly weapon), 145 (joining unlawful assembly) of IPC, and they were produced in the court today.

From police sources it was revealed that all the accused are from the same family, residing in the same area. They had pigeons at their house, and after some were stolen on Friday, they suspected that Raut was behind the theft. They quarrelled with him in the day and Raut filed a complaint. In the evening, when the accused came to know that Raut had lodged a complaint against them, they were livid and went to his house and beat him up. The victim was a farmer and is survived by his wife and son.

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