Slain boy’s family refuses

“Abhishek got many calls on Wednesday afternoon on his cell phone,inviting him for the birthday party of a friend Pandya alias Dashrath Kamble of Tadiwala Road slums. Around 4.30 pm,he went to Maldhakka Chowk in Mangalwar Peth to purchase a cake,saying his friends were waiting,” Suresh said.

“We had plans to go to his uncle’s place in Patas. But around 6.30 pm,Abhishek called me saying the party would end late. He asked me to leave for Patas with his mother and elder sister and he would join us the next day. On Thursday afternoon,we were informed he was murdered. We are still shocked. Abhishek’s mother has high blood pressure; she has not eaten for two days,” he said.

According to Suresh,Abhishek was studying in eighth class at a local school. “There was a brawl in his school involving his classmates about a year back. At the time he informed police of details of the boys involved. I feel that the same boys killed him,” he said.

The police have so far arrested 18-year-old Ashish Sunil Mapare of Tadiwala road and detained two minor boys on charges of murdering Abhishek. Mapare was produced in court on Saturday and remanded to police custody till May 11. The two minors were sent to the remand home for juveniles. The police have recovered a sickle the suspects allegedly used for beheading Abhishek.

A police team led by Senior Inspector Deepak Sawant took Mapare to Naik island. Mapare showed the spot where he had allegedly thrown Abhishek’s head,which is believed to have been swept away by the river.

Investigations revealed that the suspects took Abhishek for a party at Naik island on Wednesday late evening. Then they tied him to a tree and chopped off his head with a sickle. They threw his head into the river and fled. Police said the incident took place between 6 and 10 pm on Wednesday.

Local residents informed police about the body at around 11 am on Thursday. Acting on a tip-off to constables Nana Bhandarge and Rahul Uttarkar of the Bund Garden police station,the police nabbed the three suspects on Friday.