Constable’s ‘injected with poisonous substance’ claim cooked up, says GRP

However, the police are still clueless about his cause of death and awaiting his postmortem report. The GRP said on Friday that surprising facts have emerged during the probe, which do not match Pawar’s statement that he gave to the police before his death.

What police found

GRP officers, close to the investigation, requesting anonymity, told The Indian Express that after scanning CCTV footage of all the railway stations between Thane and Byculla, it was found that on Saturday, Pawar left his Thane home for duty and boarded a CSMT bound train. But instead of going to his workplace in Byculla, he got down at Dadar railway station. He visited a nearby bar and had drinks at night. Then he went to Parel station by walking a distance of nearly two km on the railway tracks.

When investigators checked his phone call details, it was found that Pawar used his phone to make a call to his distant nephew Nilesh at around 11.56 pm. Since he was sleeping, the call lasted only 30 seconds. He slept under a staircase at Parel station overnight. The next day morning, he boarded a local train from Parel to Matunga station. After getting down at Matunga station, he went out for some time and returned to the station, and then at around 11 am, boarded a down line (towards Thane) local train and reached Thane railway station. He called Nilesh from a policeman’s mobile phone from Thane station and asked him to come to a bar near Thane station. There, Pawar again had drinks with Nilesh. After that, the two went back home.

All this while Pawar was on an empty stomach and just had an omelette, said a police officer. At 11.30 pm on Sunday, Pawar vomited. Later, he vomited again a few times. As his health showed no signs of improvement, the next day (Monday), Nilesh took him to the Thane civil hospital. Suspecting his symptoms could be of heatstroke, doctors admitted him to the heatstroke ward, where he died while undergoing treatment on Wednesday.

“With the help of CCTV footages, including those of the two bars, witness accounts, and technical investigation we have managed to ascertain the fact that no robbery or murder by poisonous injection took place,” said a senior GRP officer. “We have also learned that Pawar, who joined the force in 2015, was addicted to alcohol for quite some years. He had also suffered jaundice due to excessive consumption of alcohol in November 2023 and was hospitalized for treatment for five days for the same. He was advised not to drink by doctors. We are checking if he had any other medical history,” the officer added.

“We are trying to find out the reason behind Pawar telling a fake story to the Kopri police. Was it to save himself from any disciplinary action as he did not go to work instead went to drink or was it something else,” another officer, who is part of the probe, said. “Since he walked over a 2-kilometer stretch of railway tracks (up fast line-4) from Dadar station to Parel station, we are also trying to find out if he had a suicide plan. And to understand if he had any financial or personal issues and how his recent mental state was, we would be speaking to his wife, elder brother, parents, relatives, friends, and colleagues.

The ‘Cooked-Up’ Story

Pawar had stated in the FIR that on Saturday night (April 27), while coming to Byculla from Thane for guard duty, his phone was robbed by a thief around 9.30 pm between Sion and Matunga railway stations.

Pawar stated in the FIR that after his phone was robbed, he alighted from the train, chased the thief and, during a scuffle with three-four thieves and drug addicts, they injected him with some poisonous substance and also poured red color liquid from a bottle into his mouth and fled the scene after robbing his phone and some cash. He felt dizzy, lost consciousness, and lay there unattended for a long time, he stated. He regained consciousness around 2-3 am and went to Matunga railway station and boarded a train for Thane to go home.

No cause of death yet

Though his “poisonous injection story” has been found to be untrue, police are still clueless about the cause of death. The postmortem report of Pawar and other medical and forensic analysis reports, which is still awaited, will give a clear picture of the exact cause of his death, whether it was due to dehydration caused by excessive consumption of alcohol on an empty stomach or organ failure, or poisoning, or any other reason.

Also, the statements of his family members and wife too hold significance. Pawar’s wife was staying at her mother’s place for the past 10 days. The two got married three years ago and had no child. GRP sources said after covering all aspects in the investigation once it is established that there was no crime committed, the police would file a report in court requesting to close the murder case.

Under GRP Commissioner Ravindra Shisve’s guidance, DCP (CR) Manoj Patil supervised the investigation headed by ACP Sunil Gaonkar and Dadar GRP senior inspector Anil Kadam.