Pune Crime Files: How cops traced engineering student Bhagyashree Sude’s killers from a ransom message

Bhagyashree goes missing

A native of Harangul village in Maharashtra’s Latur district, Bhagyashree was a fourth-year student of BE (Computer Science) at GH Raisoni College in Pune’s Wagholi and resided at Sakore Nagar. As per police records, she went to Phoenix Mall in Viman Nagar around 9 pm on March 30, 2024.

Bhagyashree had told her mother that she was going to a friend’s birthday party, but went missing soon after, the police said.

On failing to contact Bhagyashree, her parents came to Pune and lodged a missing-person report at Viman Nagar police station on April 2. The same day, her mother received a ransom message from Bhagyashree’s mobile phone: “Allah Hafiz Sude family. Stop searching for Bhagyashree. We have kidnapped her. We have sent her to a foreign country.”

The message, which was in Hindi, directed Bhagyashree’s parents to transfer Rs 9 lakh to her bank account for her release and threatened to throw pieces of her body in her native village if the police were informed.

Investigators later said the message was meant to “divert” their attention and make her family and the police believe that she was still alive.

Meanwhile, Bhagyashree’s father Suryakant Sude, a former sarpanch, lodged a First Information Report (FIR) of kidnapping under section 364 (a) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

A technical investigation confirmed that the ransom message to Bhagyashree’s parents was sent from Mumbai’s Jogeshwari area. A police team went to Mumbai, but could not trace the accused.

As the probe into Bhagyashree’s mobile phone calls and bank account continued, the police zeroed in on Shivam Madhav Fulawale, 21, a student of BE (IT) at her college.

Officers said Bhagyashree knew Fulawale, a native of Nanded, for two years as they were in the same college and belonged to the Marathwada region. They used to talk to each other and she had even met him on March 28, the police said.

Based on clues obtained during the investigation, investigators arrested Fulawale from Wagholi for his alleged role in Bhagyashree’s murder. Subsequently, his aides Suresh Shivaji Indure, 23, and Sagar Ramesh Jadhav, 23, were also arrested.

A mall visit and a pit dug the day before

The probe revealed that Bhagyashree went with Fulawale on March 30 when he came to Phoenix Mall in a rented car along with his friends Suresh and Sagar. The police suspect that Fulawale may have offered to drop her near her room but the three men allegedly choked her to death in the car.

Officers said the accused allegedly took her body to a secluded spot at Kamargaon village in Ahilyanagar district. They suspect the men burnt her body with petrol before burying her. The police recovered Bhagyashree’s body from the spot on April 7.

Referring to the pit in which Bhagyashree was found buried, an officer said the accused had dug it the day before committing the crime, suggesting that her murder was a premeditated and well-planned act. The accused had hired a car on rent to commit the crime. The police said they went to Mumbai and Nanded after the murder before returning to Pune and giving the car back to the service provider. The vehicle was subsequently seized for investigation.

Plan hatched after ‘losses in share market, gaming’

The police said Suresh, who has a diploma in IT and worked in Mumbai, knew Fulawale as both hail from the same district. Fulawale knew Sagar, a Class 10 pass, since his school days.

The accused were charged under Indian Penal Code (IPC) sections 302 (murder), 120B (criminal conspiracy), 201 (causing disappearance of evidence), 404 (dishonest misappropriation of property possessed by deceased person), and 34 (common intention).

As the police began probing the motive behind the murder, it came to light that the suspects had become debt-ridden after losing their money in the share market and to online gaming. So they allegedly hatched a conspiracy to kidnap Bhagyashree and extort money from her family. Officers, however, suspect that she may have been murdered because of her attempts to resist them.

Sarjerao Kumbhar, Senior Police Inspector, said, “The accused committed the crime for money. There was no sexual assault on the victim. The accused had no previous criminal record. Technical investigation helped us in solving the case.”

After the murder triggered outrage, Fadnavis, who was then the deputy chief minister and home minister of the state at the time, visited Bhagyashree’s family and said he would personally request advocate Ujjwal Nikam to be the SPP in the case.

A police officer who was part of the investigation said a chargesheet has been filed against the three accused who are currently in jail. The case is on before a court in Pune.