Two days after a director of a credit society in Pune district’s Junnar taluka went missing, the Pune Rural Police arrested two people, including his distant relative, for allegedly murdering him due to a business rivalry and dumping his body in a well.
The deceased identified as Kishor Kondibhau Tambe, 40, a resident of the Tambewadi area of Alephata town in Junnar, was a farmer and a director of the Vividh Karyakari Credit Society. He was also into the excavation and sale of murram, a disintegrated rock for filling in construction works.
On the evening of April 6, Kishor told his cousin Santosh Tambe that he was going to the farm for some work. However, Kishor did not return and did not respond to calls till late in the night. The family members then approached the police and registered a missing complaint. The Aalephata police station and the Local Crime Branch (LCB) of the Pune Rural Police then launched a joint search. A member of the police canine squad, Durga, also joined the probe.
“When Durga was given the smell of Kishor’s clothes, she led the investigation team to a location in Tambewadi, next to a canal and a well. However, before the search of the canal and well was to be launched, the LCB team received a crucial tip-off from informants that Kishor’s distant relative Pandurang Jijabhau Tambe, 39, and his aide Mahesh Gorakhnath Kasal, 30, were involved in the murder of Kishor. The two were detained for questioning and after sustained interrogation, they confessed to killing Kishor,” said an officer from Pune Rural police.
Inspector Yashwant Nalawade, in charge of the Aalephata police station, said, “The probe has now revealed that Pandurang Tambe had been nursing grudges against Kishor due to their business rivalry in murram excavation and sale business. Pandurang and Mahesh hatched a plan to eliminate Kishor.”
Inspector Nalawade added, “They invited him for a liquor party and got him inebriated before killing him by hitting him on the head with an iron rod. They then dumped his body in the well, the probe shows. This is the same well next to the canal, where police canine Durga had led the investigation team to. The body was subsequently fished out from the well. We have seized the car used by the suspects to commit the crime.”
The police have invoked Indian Penal Code sections 302 for murder, 201 for causing the disappearance of evidence, and 120B for criminal conspiracy, against the two accused.
