Youths tortured for hours,shows probe

Kurar killings z ’Two victims made to watch gruesome scene’

Senior policemen investigating the murder of the four youths whose naked and partially burnt bodies were found on Monday over 24 hours after they had been kidnapped from Kurar village in Malad (East) now believe that they had been subjected to gruesome torture before they were killed.

While it was reported earlier that the bodies bore acid burns,a team of forensic experts confirmed they also discovered human faeces near the bodies. Officers admitted that the group from Kurar village which found the bodies on Monday not only reported that the victims’ were found stripped and bore signs of assault,but also that there were human faeces at two spots,right next to where two bodies were found lined up inches away from each other.

Senior police officers said they suspect the faeces to be of the victims,who were apparently made to watch as the other two were being assaulted.

“In massacres involving personal enmity in recent times,there hasn’t been an instance where death has been exhibited. Either people have been killed together or have been attacked to instant death. In this case,the indication of fear in two victims indicates that they were seeing something too macabre,with the full knowledge that it was soon going to be their fate too,” said an officer from the investigating team.

The exact sequence of the deaths and the degree of assault will only be confirmed once the autopsy report is analysed. “For now,it’s enough to say that the scene must have been gruesome for the two victims to react like this,” he added.

The police said the mother of one of the victims,Dinesh Ahire,received a call at home around 3 pm on Sunday. A man reportedly yelled “aai,aai”,in pain,before the line went dead.

“We rushed to the police station to inform about the call. It was then tracked to a location named Makrani Pada in Malad. We,along with police vans,circled the entire area but found nothing,” said a relative of Ahire.

The post-mortem examination will also reveal if acid was used to torment them when they were alive. “We know now from the accused’s questioning that they tried to make the bodies unidentifiable by pouring acid. The rains prevented the bodies from getting charred completely with the dead skin turning white at places where the acid stopped reacting,” said an officer.