This is an archive article published on September 13, 2022
Murder of 7-year-old: Non-functional CCTV cameras created hurdles in investigation
On September 8, Aditya was playing near his residence when he was kidnapped and later, he was killed. His father, Gajanan, a builder, had allegedly received a ransom call of Rs 20 crore.
Minutes after seven-year-old Aditya Ogale was kidnapped and killed by two youths from Masulkar Colony area of Pune’s Pimpri-Chinchwad on September 8, the child’s family along with the police launched a search for him. They tried to look through the CCTV footage at the police station but unfortunately, “many of the CCTV cameras were not operational.”
On September 8, Aditya was playing near his residence when he was kidnapped and later, he was killed. His father, Gajanan, a builder, had allegedly received a ransom call of Rs 20 crore.
Speaking to The Indian Express, Gajanan said, “We wanted to find out where our child was taken. When we tried to look through the CCTV footage at the police station, we saw hardly any CCTV camera was functional. Many of the CCTVs, it seems, have been installed on the roads for the sake of it. We urge the Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation to get them started.”
One of the prime accused, Manthan Bhosale (20), lives in the same building as the Ogales inside the Greenfield Society. Bhosale is an engineering student who was known for creating ruckus in the society. He had also been banned by the society members from entering the premises.
Gajanan said moments after Aditya went downstairs, some of his friends came running upstairs to inform that they saw Aditya being taken towards the society gates. “We rushed downstairs and ran towards the society gate. We could not locate him. A car with dark tinted glass just sped away. We could not spot anyone inside. It also did not occur to us that they have kidnapped Aditya in that car,” he said.
When asked about Gajanan’s complaint, Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Commissioner Shekhar Singh, who visited PCMC’s CCTV control and command room Monday, said, “We have taken up a project of installing CCTVs across the road. The work is jointly being done by the PCMC and the Pimpri-Chinchwad Smart City Ltd. The work is being done in two phases and is expected to be completed by November,” he said.
The PCMC chief said on some stretches, cameras have been installed but the optic fibre work remains to be completed. “That is why it looks like CCTVs have been installed. Once the full work is completed, the CCTVs will become operational,” he said.
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Pimpri-Chinchwad Police Commissioner Akush Shinde said, “As far as a complaint regarding the use of dark glasses by cars, there is a need to launch a drive against such practices and stern action.”
Regarding the vacant company premises in MIDC Bhosari area where the two accused dumped the body of the child, the police chief said, “The company had been completely abandoned by the owner and only scrap material was present there. We will be communicating with the MIDC to find out about the owner of the company and find out other details.”
The police chief said they will also try to find out whether the empty company premise was being used by the youths to carry out illegal activities. Former local corporator Rajesh Pillay said, “The prime accused was a drug addict and was even kept at a rehabilitation centre by this family. Not just him, there are many youths who can be found taking drugs or consuming ganja in the Mandai area. They do it openly.”
Manoj More has been working with the Indian Express since 1992. For the first 16 years, he worked on the desk, edited stories, made pages, wrote special stories and handled The Indian Express edition. In 31 years of his career, he has regularly written stories on a range of topics, primarily on civic issues like state of roads, choked drains, garbage problems, inadequate transport facilities and the like. He has also written aggressively on local gondaism. He has primarily written civic stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad, Khadki, Maval and some parts of Pune. He has also covered stories from Kolhapur, Satara, Solapur, Sangli, Ahmednagar and Latur. He has had maximum impact stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad industrial city which he has covered extensively for the last three decades.
Manoj More has written over 20,000 stories. 10,000 of which are byline stories. Most of the stories pertain to civic issues and political ones. The biggest achievement of his career is getting a nearly two kilometre road done on Pune-Mumbai highway in Khadki in 2006. He wrote stories on the state of roads since 1997. In 10 years, nearly 200 two-wheeler riders had died in accidents due to the pathetic state of the road. The local cantonment board could not get the road redone as it lacked funds. The then PMC commissioner Pravin Pardeshi took the initiative, went out of his way and made the Khadki road by spending Rs 23 crore from JNNURM Funds. In the next 10 years after the road was made by the PMC, less than 10 citizens had died, effectively saving more than 100 lives.
Manoj More's campaign against tree cutting on Pune-Mumbai highway in 1999 and Pune-Nashik highway in 2004 saved 2000 trees.
During Covid, over 50 doctors were asked to pay Rs 30 lakh each for getting a job with PCMC. The PCMC administration alerted Manoj More who did a story on the subject, asking then corporators how much money they demanded....The story worked as doctors got the job without paying a single paisa.
Manoj More has also covered the "Latur drought" situation in 2015 when a "Latur water train" created quite a buzz in Maharashtra. He also covered the Malin tragedy where over 150 villagers had died.
Manoj More is on Facebook with 4.9k followers (Manoj More), on twitter manojmore91982 ... Read More
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