Pune Crime Files: How a dispute over pangolin smuggling led to gory murder of two traders in Tamhini Ghat

Salunkhe, a resident of Banda, and Gosavi, a resident of Nipani in Belagavi district of Karnataka, were both scrap traders. The duo had informed their family they were going to meet Ashok Hilam, a resident of Mangaon in Raigad district, for business purposes. They had stayed at a lodge in Mangaon. When Salunkhe and Gosavi could not be contacted, their family in Banda went to Hilam’s home in Mangaon, but Hilam claimed he had gone to Baramati for work and later switched off his phone. The family subsequently registered a missing persons complaint at the Mangaon police station, only to learn from the Pune rural police on July 4 that the two had been found dead, charred inside a car.

“Initially, there were hardly any clues in the case. With the help of the chassis number of the car, the vehicle was identified and the relatives of the deceased were contacted. Initial information from the family revealed the names of Ashok Hilam, 31, and Ganesh Raghunath Waghmare, 27. We found out that the two deceased and Hilam and Waghmare were involved in the smuggling of pangolins, pangolin scales, and other banned wildlife items. In 2018, Salunkhe and Gosavi had a dispute with Hilam and Waghmare over a pangolin deal. In the same year, Hilam and Waghmare were arrested by the police for pangolin smuggling. The two suspected that a tip-off by Salunkhe and Gosavi had led to their arrest. Upon their release on bail, Hilam and Waghmare hatched a plan to murder Salunkhe and Gosavi,” said an officer who was part of the investigation by the Pune rural police at the time.

The officer added, “Hilam and Waghmare called Salunkhe and Gosavi, saying they had found a good deal on pangolins and pangolin scales. Salunkhe and Gosavi left Banda on June 27, 2019, and came to Mangaon. The two travelled to Pune along with Hilam and Waghmare in the car. In the Tamhini Ghat area, three accomplices of Hilam and Waghmare were waiting. The five people brutally thrashed Salunkhe and Gosavi and strangled them. They were planning to plunge the car into a deep gorge of the Kundalika valley, but they could not due to issues with the vehicle. The accused set the car on fire. We arrested the three additional suspects later.”

Hilam, Waghmare, and the three others—Shankar Hilam, 20, Lahanya Jadhav, 30, and Ganesh Pawar, 26—were all charged with the murder of the two traders.

“A chargesheet was filed against the five accused in December 2019, and the case is currently pending in the sessions court against them,” said an officer from the Paud police station.

One of the most trafficked animals

Pangolin, also known as the scaly anteater, is an insectivorous mammal that has hard scales of keratin on its body. Two of the eight subspecies of the animal are found in India. The animal has been given protected status under schedule I of the Wildlife Protection Act. While pangolin scales are mainly used in traditional oriental remedies and to make luxury items, the animal’s meat is also consumed and sold at a very high price in the illegal market. There have been cases of pangolins being kept in houses in India, as there is a superstition that they bring wealth.

Pangolin is one of the most trafficked animals in the world and officials suspect that multiple rackets may be active in various parts of Maharashtra, where one chain captures them from forests and sells them to middlemen in cities, who then sell them to smugglers. In addition to Pune, Thane and Raigad, seizures of live animals and scales have also been made in the past from Chandrapur and Nanded districts in Maharashtra.