Journalism of Courage
The Pimpri-Chinchwad police have arrested a man wanted in a 14-year-old murder case in which he had allegedly killed his paramour and burnt her body in a bid to make it appear like a suicide, officers said. The police said the suspect changed his location, identity and looks at least thrice over the years to evade arrest.
On Saturday, the crime branch arrested Appa Gomaji Mohite, 50, who was working for daily wages at construction sites in the Waki area of Rajgurunagar, around 40 km from Pune city. Inspector Dnyaneshwar Katkar of the crime branch said, “The only photo we had was one taken 15 years ago. But following a meticulous probe, we arrested him when he was returning home from work. Investigation suggests that during these 14 years he has changed his identity, location and looks at least three times. He lived in Satara and Baramati earlier and now lives in Waki.”
Mohite had allegedly murdered the 30-year-old woman on April 21, 2008. Police probe at the time revealed that she had been asking him to divorce his wife and marry her. She had also allegedly been threatening to file a rape case against him if he did not comply. Officers said Mohite owned two houses at the time. On the day of the murder, he asked the woman to accompany her to one of the two houses, which was their usual meeting place. Investigation at the time had revealed that she was hit with a metal rod and the body was burnt later.
Police probe soon brought the murder to light and a manhunt was launched for Mohite, who was 35 at the time. Recently, the crime branch of Pimpri-Chinchwad police obtained concrete leads about him through his old acquaintances in a criminal gang based in Bhosari which was previously led by deceased gangster Prakash Chavan.
“Even before 2008, Mohite had links to the Prakash Chavan gang and had been booked for cases like murder and attempted murder along with other gang members. We recently received some crucial leads about Mohite’s location through our probe on members of the Prakash Chavan gang. We got to know that he had been hiding in the Waki area,” the inspector said.
