The Narpoli Police Station in Bhiwandi town nabbed five youth for the sensational killing of a minor boy after a brawl, burying his body and then absconding for nearly three weeks, an official said here on Wednesday.
The accused are: Ayush Virendra Jha, Manoj Narayan Tope, both 19, Santosh Satyanarain Tatipamul, 21, Aniket Tukaram Kharat and Shivaji Dhanraj Mane, both 23 years old, said Narpoli Police Station Senior Police Inspector Bharat Kamat.
The five have been charged for the killing of Yogesh Ravi Sharma, 16, who had a brawl with some of them and they plotted a conspiracy to eliminate him
On Nov. 25 evening around 7.30 pm, the boy told his mother that he was going near the Thane Creek nearby, but never returned, and his mobile was switched off.
After looking for him at all possible places, the mother finally lodged a missing and suspected kidnaping complaint with the local police on November 28.
The police set up multiple teams which rushed to several locations to trace the boy, but did not get any success.
The teams also quietly tracked the movements of his friends Jha, Tope and Kharat and learnt that the boy had got into a scuffle with Jha a few days ago.
Deploying tech-intel and local network of informers, the police found that on Nov. 25, the five accused had allegedly invited the boy for a beer party at Retibunder area of the Thane Creek.
Unaware of their diabolical plan to kill him, the boy went to the site where he enjoyed beers with Jha and Tope, who later called the other three – Kharat, Tatipamul and Mane, and others to the isolated spot.
They came and all ganged up against the lone boy, caught and overpowered him and then repeatedly stabbed him with a knife, killing him on the spot.
Under cover of darkness, they dug up a hole nearby and buried him before decamping from there, as per the confessions of Jha and Tope.
The police later exhumed the partly decomposed body of the boy and sent it for an autopsy, even as the incident created shockwaves in Thane, the home district of Chief Minister Eknath Shinde.
Kamat said the police teams are on the lookout for the other absconding associates of the five accused and hope to track them soon.
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