Murder of 7-year-old: Prime accused was known for bad behaviour, notorious acts, say society residents

Residents claimed that Manthan used to frequently throw stones and bottles from his flat in the parking lot, which had damaged several vehicles.

Police said that Manthan had planned the kidnapping of Aditya at least 15 days ago.

Manthan Bhosale, the 20-year-old prime accused in the kidnapping and murder of Aditya Ogale (7), is an engineering student. Residents alleged that Manthan was infamous for his bad behaviour within the premises of the Greenfield Society in the Ajmera-Masulkar Colony area of Pimpri-Chinchwad.

While the Bhosale family lives on the first floor of the same building, the Ogale family lives on the fifth floor.

Also Read | 1.2kg gold biscuits worth Rs 61L seized at Pune International Airport

Residents claimed that Manthan used to frequently throw stones and bottles from his flat in the parking lot, which had damaged several vehicles. “His bad behaviour had resulted in several quarrels between the residents and his family. He had become whimsical and indulged in notorious acts,” said Sunny Diwan, a resident.

Former corporator Rajesh Pillay, who lives in the same Masulkar Colony area, said, “I had received several complaints about this youngster’s bad behaviour with other residents. He has several friends from nearby slum areas. They all consume drugs in Masulkar Colony area and indulge in objectionable behaviour.”

Another resident said, “As Mathan was consuming drugs, his family had kept him in a de-addiction centre. He was at the centre for a year. Just 15-20 days back, he was again seen in the society.”

Police said that Manthan had planned the kidnapping of Aditya at least 15 days ago. His school friend Aniket Samdar (21), who lives in Gharkul, Chikhli became his accomplice in the matter. Aniket had recently got married and was living in Mumbai with his wife. “He needed money. Manthan told him that they will kidnap Aditya and demand Rs 20 crore. They expected to get at least Rs 4-5 lakh,” police said.

Police said that Manthan and his friend had failed to kidnap Aditya in their earlier attempts. Then he struck up another plan. He knew Aditya was close to his aunt, who lives in another area. So, on Thursday evening when Aditya came down to the parking area, Mathan told him that his aunt wanted to see him. As Manthan and his friend tried to pull him inside the car, Aditya started screaming alarming the accused, who strangled the seven-year-old with his hands.

Story continues below this ad

“The car with a tinted windshield was parked by Manthan in a corner of the society where the CCTV could not capture their act. The vehicle belonged to Manthan’s father,” sources said. The accused then took the body to the vacant premises of an industrial unit, which was shut. “Both of them used to smoke cigarettes and consume ganja at this premise,” sources said.

Manoj Dattatrye More

Manoj More has been working with the Indian Express since 1992. For the first 16 years, he worked on the desk, edited stories, made pages, wrote special stories and handled The Indian Express edition. In 31 years of his career, he has regularly written stories on a range of topics, primarily on civic issues like state of roads, choked drains, garbage problems, inadequate transport facilities and the like. He has also written aggressively on local gondaism. He has primarily written civic stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad, Khadki, Maval and some parts of Pune. He has also covered stories from Kolhapur, Satara, Solapur, Sangli, Ahmednagar and Latur. He has had maximum impact stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad industrial city which he has covered extensively for the last three decades. Manoj More has written over 20,000 stories. 10,000 of which are byline stories. Most of the stories pertain to civic issues and political ones. The biggest achievement of his career is getting a nearly two kilometre road done on Pune-Mumbai highway in Khadki in 2006. He wrote stories on the state of roads since 1997. In 10 years, nearly 200 two-wheeler riders had died in accidents due to the pathetic state of the road. The local cantonment board could not get the road redone as it lacked funds. The then PMC commissioner Pravin Pardeshi took the initiative, went out of his way and made the Khadki road by spending Rs 23 crore from JNNURM Funds. In the next 10 years after the road was made by the PMC, less than 10 citizens had died, effectively saving more than 100 lives. Manoj More's campaign against tree cutting on Pune-Mumbai highway in 1999 and Pune-Nashik highway in 2004 saved 2000 trees. During Covid, over 50 doctors were asked to pay Rs 30 lakh each for getting a job with PCMC. The PCMC administration alerted Manoj More who did a story on the subject, asking then corporators how much money they demanded....The story worked as doctors got the job without paying a single paisa. Manoj More has also covered the "Latur drought" situation in 2015 when a "Latur water train" created quite a buzz in Maharashtra. He also covered the Malin tragedy where over 150 villagers had died. Manoj More is on Facebook with 4.9k followers (Manoj More), on twitter manojmore91982 ... Read More

Click here to join Express Pune WhatsApp channel and get a curated list of our stories