Over eight months after a 38-year-old farmer was hacked to death in Junnar taluka of Pune district, the Pune Rural police said they have arrested a key accused in the case from Gujarat, adding that he had changed his identity and his looks.
Rohidas Baburao Pable (38), a resident of Pimpri Kawal village in Junnar taluka, was hacked to death on the night of March 9, allegedly by five assailants who chased him down the field behind his house and attacked him with sharp swords and sickles, in front of his family members.
While the police immediately arrested four suspects in the case, the alleged main assailant, identified as Manna Singh from Punjab, could not be caught. A joint investigation team from Narayangaon police station and the local Crime Branch of the Pune Rural police was on Singh’s lookout when it received a tip-off that Singh was in Gujarat. After receiving information that Singh was working at a private company under a different identity, a police team arrested him on Sunday from his workplace in Gujarat.
According to the police, Singh initially denied his role in the murder and said he was not the person the police were looking for. But after interrogation at a nearby police station in Gujarat, he allegedly admitted that he was Suraj Harjeet Singh alias Manna Singh (23) of Tarn Taran in Punjab and confessed to his role in Pable’s murder. Singh was produced before a court in Junnar on Tuesday and was remanded to police custody for five days.
