Grandfather Bandu Andekar among 6 more arrested for ‘revenge’ murder of Pune youth Ayush Komkar

Police Commissioner Amitesh Kumar confirmed to The Indian Express that four accused in Ayush’s murder, including his grandfather Bandu Andekar, 68, were arrested from the Mehkar area in the Buldhana district of Maharashtra, while two others were arrested from Pune. The police will produce them before a court to seek custody remand.

The police had booked 13 people for the murder based on the complaint of Ayush’s mother Kalyani Ganesh Komkar, 37, in an FIR at the Samarth police station. Kalyani’s father Bandu Andekar and eight others from the Andekar family are among them. Andekar gang members Amit Prakash Patole, 19; Sujal Rahul Mergu, 23; Aman Yusuf Pathan alias Khan, Yash Siddheshwar Patil, 19, all residents of Nana Peth, are the others.

The police had earlier arrested Amit Patole and Yash Patil. A court remanded the two accused to police custody till September 12 for investigation.

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It is alleged in the FIR that the Andekar gang hatched the conspiracy to gun down Ayush Komkar to avenge the murder of Vanraj. The accused Aman Pathan and Yash Patil allegedly shot dead Ayush Komkar in the parking of Lakshmi Complex, near Navrang Mitra Mandal in Bhavani Peth, where he was residing, around 7.30 pm on September 5.

The police said after the post-mortem, Ayush’s body was kept in a morgue at the Sassoon hospital because his father Ganesh Komkar was lodged in Nagpur jail, in connection with the murder of Vanraj. A parole was given to Ganesh Komkar to attend his son’s last rites.

Vanraj was shot dead near his Nana Peth residence on September 1, 2024. Vanraj’s sister Sanjivani Komkar, her husband Jayant, Ayush’s father Ganesh Komkar, and history-sheeter Somnath Sayaji Gaikwad were among those arrested for Vanraj’s murder.

The police said following a previous dispute, the Komkars had allegedly conspired to kill Vanraj with the help of Gaikwad, a former henchman of the Andekar gang who later became a rival.