Solving Crime: How 2 Mumbai cops stuck in a traffic jam ran into a murderer

The policemen took the man to the Goregaon police station and handed him over to the on-duty station officer. When the police began questioning him, the man allegedly revealed that he had assaulted a man named Sandeep Dhamnaskar, his employer’s neighbour. He also revealed that the incident had taken place at a local park.

A police team was immediately dispatched to the scene. Soon, the police said, it was confirmed—the intoxicated man, later identified as Ranjeet Chauhan, had, in fact, committed a crime.

According to the police, Chauhan and Dhamnaskar got into an argument over the latter’s refusal to bring liquor. Dhamnaskar’s wife, Bhakti, who was informed about the spat, rushed to the spot and saw people running helter-skelter. According to eyewitnesses, Chauhan began attacking Dhamnaskar multiple times with a screwdriver. Bhakti also allegedly witnessed the assault. She intervened and, with the help of others, rushed Dhamnaskar to the hospital, where he succumbed to his injuries.

Chauhan fled—only to run into the police at the traffic jam.

During the trial before the sessions court, the police relied on the statement of Bhakti, who had witnessed the assault, and the testimony of the two policemen who had seen Chauhan. The sessions court on October 17 found Chauhan guilty of murder and sentenced him to life imprisonment. The court said that while Chauhan admitting that he had killed a person after being apprehended by the two policemen in the traffic jam cannot be considered as a confession as it was made before the police, the circumstances of how he was caught and handed over to the police can be considered as evidence.

Chauhan’s lawyer had said that there were various discrepancies in the probe, including that Bhakti had not identified him by his name, but the court said that since they lived in the same neighbourhood, it was possible that she knew him by face.

“The accused has inflicted more than 25 penetrating injuries on the body of deceased Sandeep, laying him on garden bench, proved to be fatal, on the count of dispute cropped up between him and Sandeep of not providing the liquor…The accused had sufficient knowledge that by giving such grievous and repeated penetrative blows of screwdriver, it would result in the death of Sandeep,” the court said.