Pune city police have booked seven persons for allegedly keeping objectionable social media “status” glorifying Andekar gang members linked to the murder of 18 year old Ayush Komkar. A first information report (FIR) in this regard was lodged by Ayush's cousin Akshada Jayant Komkar (25), at the Samarth police station, on Friday. As per the FIR, the seven accused are identified as Manthan Bhalerao, Om Nagarkar, Harshal Pawar, Piyush Bidkar, Atharva Nalawade, Omkar Mergu and Faizal Shaikh, all residents of Nana Peth area. Police have booked them under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) sections 125 (act endangering human life or the personal safety of others), 3(5) and 353(2) (statements that can cause public mischief). As stated in the FIR, Akshada works with an IT company in the city. She recently came across alleged objectionable content displayed by the accused persons on their Instagram account “status”. As stated in the FIR, one of the accused had kept his instagram status as “Badla toh Honga Reply fix Aata fakt bodya moza (Revenge will happen, keep counting bodies)….. sugde kutre hote Sher Tha Mera Boss (all are dogs, my boss was a Tiger). One & only A company” along with an image of a pistol. Another accused allegedly had kept his instagram status as “Badla bhi aisa lenge raste par sabun ka pani nahi khun ki nadiya bahengi (Revenge will be such that streams of blood and not that of soap water would flow on the streets)”, the FIR mentioned. An accused also allegedly kept instagram status as “Weapon King” alongside a photograph of Munaf Pathan, who was arrested in the Ayush Komkar murder case for allegedly supplying firearms to the Andekar gang. Similarly, the accused had kept their Instagram status as photographs of other Andekar gang members arrested for Ayush's murder. Senior police inspector Umesh Gitte of the Samarth police station confirmed that the FIR was lodged against seven persons for alleged objectionable social media status and further investigation was on against the accused. Ayush Komkar was allegedly shot multiple times by two gunmen in the parking lot of his residential building in Bhavani Peth on September 5, in what is suspected to be revenge for the murder of former Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) corporator Vanraj Andekar, Bandu Andekar’s son, in September last year. Ayush was the son of Bandu’s daughter Kalyani Komkar, whose husband Ganesh Komkar, sister Sanjivani (second daughter of Bandu Andekar) and brother in law Jayant Komkar (Sanjivani's husband) are prime accused in Vanraj’s murder. Akshada is Jayant's daughter, police said. The police have so far arrested 16 people, including Bandu, nine people from his family, and other gang members in the Ayush Komkar murder case. Police have booked all the accused under sections of the BNS, Arms Act and the stringent Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA). The police have also demolished several illegal structures owned by the Andekar gang in Pune. Meanwhile, on Friday, following complaints filed by the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) officials, three more FIRs were lodged against the Andekar family and gang members for allegedly putting up illegal banners at public places in Nana Peth area of the city.
