Justice to me is to see Rathi murder convicts hanged, says family member

[related-post]

Rathi says that on August 26, 1994, after lunch with family, he and his brother-in-law left for some business-related work. While his father was at the sweet mart, his younger brother was in Mumbai and the other family members were at home. “In the evening, when we returned after work, my father told me he’s been trying to call home but there was no answer. Since my wife was pregnant, I assumed they must have gone to the doctor. I reached home soon after. When no one opened the door on ringing the bell several times, I sent someone to the shop to fetch duplicate keys. When I entered the house, there was no one in the drawing room, which was strange. As I started checking rooms, I discovered my family members in a pool of blood. I started crying and called up my father to tell him ‘everything is finished’,” says Sanjay, breaking down. The victims, investigation revealed, were stabbed to death.

Rajpurohit, says Sanjay, worked at their family-run Sagar Sweet Mart for three to four months. Over a week before the murder, he quit. During his stint at the shop, he was at times asked to go to the Rathi residence – Himanshu Apartment in Kothrud – to fetch or deliver items. The other two convicts were unknown to the family. “I am assuming that during those trips to the house, he must have made note of who all are there in the family, when do men of the house step out and so on,” he recollects.

He adds that post the investigation he learnt that when the trio entered the house with knives, his mother and sisters were ready to give away valuables and kept pleading for their lives. “If their motive was robbery, what was the need of killing everyone. They didn’t think before killing a pregnant woman and small kids, who couldn’t defend themselves.” He states he never bothered to calculate valuables he lost as it meant nothing after losing his loved ones.

Immediately after the incident, he and his father shifted to Karve Road. Rathi’s father, 73 years old now, is yet to come out of shock. Though earlier he regularly sat at the sweet mart, these days his visits have reduced. In 1995, Rathi remarried and he and Sangita, his second wife, now have two children. “I was shattered but with my wife’s support, I was able to gather myself to some extent, though life was never the same after that day,” he says.

“I will keep fighting the case till my last breath. Justice to me is the day when the convicts will be hanged and if there is something worse then be it,” says Rathi.

‘Convicts spent earnings on drinks, brothels’

On the busy Laxmi Road in Pune is a small sweet shop, Bombay Vihar, which once employed — Narayan Chetanaram Chaudhary and Jitu Nayansingh Gehlot —the two convicts in the 1994 Rathi murder case. While Gehlot and Chaudhary were sentenced to death, their accomplice Rajusingh Rajpurohit was granted pardon and released after he turned approver.

Yogesh Gathani (65), the owner of Bombay Vihar, says he had employed Rajpurohit in 1993 after his elder brother Kalyansingh, who earlier worked at the shop as a halwai, recommended him for the job. While Rajpurohit attended customers at the sales counter, both Chaudhary and Gehlot worked as helpers. “As I was not happy with the work of Chaudhary and Raju (Rajpurohit), I sacked them in January 1994. Jitu (Gehlot) left the work on his own after his friends were asked to leave,” says Gathani Gathani, adding they were not skillful and worked only for fun.

“All three were in their early 20s and were great friends. Later, I learnt they often went for drinking and to brothels,” said Gathani.