Popular televised detective serial allegedly inspired 19-year-old and two minors to resort to crime; teens abduct friend, discard body in forest area after strangling and slitting his throat, then phone victim's father for ransom
Popular televised detective serial allegedly inspired 19-year-old and two minors to resort to crime; teens abduct friend, discard body in forest area after strangling and slitting his throat, then phone victim's father for ransom
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Inspired by a popular detective serial -- C.I.D -- three persons allegedly abducted their 15-year-old friend, strangled him and slit his throat at a spot about 25 kilometres outside the city and then demanded a ransom of Rs 50,000 from the victim's father.
Cold blooded: The murderous trio after they were traced through
their call details by the police; the victim Shubham Mahadev Shirke
(inset), who was kidnapped, killed and thrown at a forested spot
about 25 kilometres outside the city. Pics/Sandip Kolhatkar
Amit Ramchandra Nair (19), a class 12 student and two juveniles said to be school drop-outs, allegedly kidnapped Shubham Mahadev Shirke (15) and committed the gruesome crime in Dighi Magazine area, off the Pune-Alandi road on Saturday afternoon.
The Vishrantwadi police arrested Nair, a resident of Apte colony in Bhosari, and detained the two minors in this connection. Senior Police Inspector with the Vishrantwadi police station, Motichand Rathod said that Shubham, a resident of Adharsh Nagar in Dighi, had recently given his class X examinations and all three suspects were his friends.
"On Saturday afternoon, Nair and the two juveniles called Shubham on his cell phone and asked him to come outside his house. They had hired a Maruti van before calling him, which they used to take him to Tank Road in Dighi.
Amit Ramchandra Nair the accused
We suspect they might have had a scuffle with Shubham and first strangled him and then slit his throat with a cutter to make sure that he was dead. They then dumped his body in the forest in the Dighi Magazine area, off the Pune-Alandi Road at 5 pm," Rathod said.
After committing the heinous crime, the abductors called Shubham's father, Mahadev Shirke, who works in a private company in Nigdi, demanding Rs 50,000 as ransom. They asked him to come to a hotel in Bhosari area to drop off the cash.
According to Rathod, Shubham's father did not alert the police, but took around eight friends and relatives and reached the said spot, where they gave Rs 15,000 to one of the kidnappers. During the meeting, Shirke's friend jotted down the kidnapper's motorcycle number.
After collecting money, the kidnapper informed Mahadev that his son would return home in the evening, but the family approached the Vishrantwadi police station and lodged a complaint when Shubham failed to turn up.
Following the complaint, the police immediately formed a team and began tracing the call details of the kidnapper and succeeded in nabbing the trio from various locations late in the night on the same day.
"During interrogation, they told us that they had kept him in the forest of Dighi, and our team immediately rushed to the spot and started a search operation. However, found him murdered in the wee hours of Sunday," said Rathod.
PSI Sachin Kale, who was leading the team, said, "All three had previously hatched a plan to kidnap the son
of a Dighi-based jeweller, but their plan could not take off. They hatched the conspiracy to make a quick buck and enjoy themselves and were inspired by a detective serial, CID.
One of the minor detainees is the son of a former PCMC corporator." The police have recovered a cutter, knife, motorcycle and car from their possession. Shubham is survived by his parents and younger brother, and was a student of Priyadarshani English Medium School in Dighi.