A month after the two engineering students from Sinhgad Institute of Technology in Lonavala were found brutally murdered near Bhushi Dam, Pune rural police have not been able to make any breakthrough in the case. On Monday, the family members of the deceased boy urged the police to solve the case within the next 20 days. They threatened to block road if the police fail to make any headway in 20 days. The dead bodies of the 22-year-old boy, a final year mechanical engineering student from the institute and the 21-year-old girl, who was in the final year computer engineering, were found, with their clothes stripped off, on the afternoon of April 3 in the forest area between INS Shivaji and Air Force Station in Lonavala. Both their bodies had severe injuries and the post-mortem report had said that the two had died due to severe blows of a blunt object on the head. After the murder came to light, Pune rural police formed eight teams comprising 15 officers to probe the case. Two days after the incident, The Indian Express had reported that though the police were probing all possible angles, they were mainly investigating the case as a robbery or sudden attack. The primary post-mortem examination had ruled out the possibility of a sexual assault on the girl. On Monday, the relatives of the boy met officers from Lonavala police station and gave them a letter. Speaking to The Indian Express after the letter was submitted, the boy’s father said, “It is really very painful to live with the notion that there is no clue about who killed my son and his friend. We have not been able to recover from the shock. There is a limit to our patience. We have now given a letter to the police that if they do not make a breakthrough in the case in the coming 20 days, we will hold a rasta roko on the highway. We don’t want to do this, but we have no choice.” He added, “We believe that there might be crucial clues in the phone records of the two and had asked the police if the phone records can be given to us. But the police have told us that they have minutely checked the records and will keep looking. They have refused to give us the records as the probe is ongoing. We just want to know what happened. It is important that the police solve the case soon. There is a sense of insecurity among the college students.” Pune rural police, on the other hand, are saying that all the possible efforts are being made, but there are very few clues that have been left behind by the murderers. A senior officer who did not wish to be named said, “This case is being probed as a top priority, but there were very few threads for us to start with. Our teams have been relentlessly working on various possibilities and no angle has been ruled out.” The girl’s father said, “We want to urge the police to solve the case as soon as possible. We want to know what exactly happened and who is behind this inhuman act. The last conversation she had with the family was with her elder sister on the previous evening of the day they went missing. She spoke about her mother’s health after her recent heart surgery. The two sisters also spoke about her upcoming exams. She told her sister about how she had worn a sari on a college farewell event. She was a good student and made us proud.” When contacted, Pune rural SP Mohammed Suvez Haque said, “There is no development in the probe that can be shared at this stage. Our teams are working on various aspects of the case.”
