‘Palghar policewoman’s friend gave out contract to kill her husband’

Two of the three accused had attacked cop’s husband, auto driver Pundalik Patil, with a knife while travelling towards Manor; no evidence found against policewoman, say cops

After going through multiple CCTV footage and call records of thousands of cell phone numbers, the Palghar police have managed to crack the murder of a Vasai-based woman constable’s husband, Pundalik Patil. Investigation has revealed that a policeman, said to be a close friend of the woman, gave the contract to kill Patil to two of his friends for '2.5 lakh.

While the main accused has been identified as Vikas Paste, 28, the other two are Swapnil Govari, 25 and Avinash Bhoir, 21. Constable Paste was attached to the Vasaigaon police station. He used to do the paperwork for a police inspector. Govari works as an outsourcing agent for the Maharashtra state electricity board while Bhoir is an electrician.

Paste’s interrogation revealed that he had given the contract to kill Patil to Govari and Bhoir. “On the day of the incident they hired Patil’s auto as customers to travel to Sirsat. Later, they asked him to take them to Manor on the pretext of some other work. On the way they attacked Patil with a knife on his head and neck from behind and killed him,” said an officer.

Further investigation has revealed that Patil’s wife and Paste were friends and the latter often used to visit her in Patil’s absence. When Patil got to know about it, he had a verbal fight with Paste at his home. The police have not given a clean chit to Patil’s wife though no evidence has been found against her.

The incident
Patil was found murdered in his rickshaw at Varai early last Thursday. According to police sources, he had suffered deep head injuries due to which a murder case was registered. Around 1.30 am on Thursday, passers-by spotted an overturned auto on the Palghar-Manor road and Patil’s body lying near it. With the help of the vehicle number and documents recovered from it, the cops traced his house.

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