Pune Crime Files: ‘Vastu’ consultant’s love for gold ends in his murder after routine ritual

A resident of Upper Indira Nagar in Bibwewadi, Warghade occasionally hired Narale’s cab when he had to travel to various places to perform vastu puja. As the probe progressed, the police zeroed in on Narale as the key suspect. Tracking CCTV footage from several locations, they soon nabbed him along with his aide Ranjit Dnyandev Jagdale, 29, on October 22.

The police probe revealed that after Warghade performed the puja on October 16, Narale offered him a coffee laced with sedatives, due to which he lost consciousness. Soon, Jagdale joined him and the two allegedly strangled Warghade and packed his body in a gunny sack, investigators said, before dumping it in the Neera River that coursed through Sarola village in the district’s Bhor taluka.

A First Information Report (FIR) was lodged against Narale and Jagdale and the two were arrested by the Bibwewadi police. After a rigorous search operation lasting ten days with the help of divers, Warghade’s body was retrieved from the reiver on November 3.

According to the police, Warghade was fond of wearing gold jewellery and at the time he went missing, he was wearing about 250 grams of ornaments. The probe indicated that Narale and his aide allegedly kidnapped Warghade to rob his jewellery. Officers said the cab driver had developed friendly relations with Warghade so the vastu consultant trusted him.

Officers said that after the murder, the accused even kept Warghade’s cell phone on and drove the cab back to his residence. In their initial statements too, the two insisted that they had dropped him home after the rituals.

A police officer, who was part of the probe, said, “After we completed the investigation, we filed a chargesheet against the two accused. Our probe also established the complete CCTV trail of their movements till they dumped the body. Both accused are currently in judicial custody and are yet to get bail.”