While a search was on for Bhagyashree Suryakant Sude, the 22-year-old engineering student who went missing on March 30, her mother received a ransom message on April 2 from her daughter’s cell phone.
Police said the message, typed in Hindi, read, “Allah Hafiz Sude family. Stop searching for Bhagyashree. We have kidnapped her. We have sent her to a foreign country….”
It further asked her parents to transfer Rs 9 lakh into her bank account as ransom for her release. It also threatened that if police were informed, pieces of her body would be thrown at their native village Harangul in Latur district of Maharashtra. However, a probe by the Pune city police revealed that Bhagyashree was murdered on March 30 itself.
Additional Commissioner of Police Manoj Patil said the purpose behind sending such a message was to “divert” attention and make her family and investigators believe that she was alive.
“There is evidence to show that she was murdered on March 30 in a rented car by three men, including her college friend. Prima-facie we suspect they committed the crime for money. They may have killed her thinking that if she remained alive after getting the ransom, she would tell everything to the police. Investigation is on to confirm the motive behind the crime. The girl’s family did not give any money to the kidnappers,” said Patil.
During technical investigation, police found the ransom message to Bhagyashree’s parents was sent from the Jogeshwari area in Mumbai. A police team went to Mumbai, but could not trace the accused on April 4.
Meanwhile, during a probe into Bhagyashree’s mobile phone calls and her bank account, police zeroed down on Shivam Fulawale (21), a native of Nanded district and a student of B.E (IT) at the G H Raisoni College in Wagholi. Police said Bhagyashree was a student of B.E (computers) at the same college.
Police arrested Shivam from Wagholi area for his alleged role in the murder. His aides— Suresh Shivaji Indure (23) and Sagar Ramesh Jadhav (23) were also arrested. Police said they went to Mumbai and Nanded after the murder and again returned to Pune.
Police said Bhagyashree was residing in Sakore Nagar in Viman Nagar area. “She knew Shivam for the last two years. Since both were in the same college and natives of Marathwada region, they used to talk to each other. She had a meeting with Shivam on March 28,” said the ACP.
Police said on March 30, she went to Phoenix Mall in Viman Nagar around 9pm. “She told her mother that she was going to a friend’s birthday. But then she went missing. Her family members lodged a missing person report at the Viman Nagar police station on April 2. Her parents came from Latur to Pune,” a police officer said.
After receiving messages demanding ransom, her father Suryakant (49), a former sarpanch, lodged an FIR for under section 364 (a) (kidnapping) of the IPC. “Probe revealed that Bhagyashree went with Shivam, who came to Phoenix Mall in a rented car along with his friends Suresh and Sagar on March 30. Prima-facie, it has been learnt that Shivam may have offered to drop Bhagyashree. But the trio allegedly gagged her to death in the car,” said a police officer.
Deputy Commissioner of Police Vijaykumar Magar said after the murder, they allegedly took her to a secluded spot at Kamargaon village in Ahmednagar district. Police suspect they burnt her body with petrol and then buried her in the ground. Police recovered the body from the spot on Sunday.
Police then invoked Sections 302 (murder), 120 b (criminal conspiracy), 201 (causing disappearance of evidence), 404 (dishonest misappropriation of property possessed by deceased person at the time of his death) and 34 (common intention) of the IPC against the accused.
Police said Suresh holds a diploma in IT. He knew Shivam as both are from the same district. Sagar, who is a 12th fail, is a friend of Suresh since school days. Police suspect the trio hatched a conspiracy to kill the girl. “Hence, they carried petrol as well as equipment for digging the ground to bury her,” a police officer said.
Senior police inspector Anandrao Khobre said the victim’s body was taken to a hospital for post mortem and the forensic report is awaited. As the body was in decomposed and burnt condition, a DNA test would be conducted for identification of the victim.
Police inspector Sarjerao Kumbhar produced the three accused before judicial magistrate (first class) S V Birajdar on Monday afternoon. Police told the court that clothes, jewellery, mobile phone and sim card (used for sending the ransom message) of the victim are yet to be recovered. Police said a probe was on to know whether the accused had any sexual contact with the victim before her murder.
Assistant public prosecutor Neelam Yadav Ithape said custodial interrogation of the accused is required to confirm the intention behind the murder, probe how and where the conspiracy was hatched and details of preparation for the crime. The court sent the three accused to police custody till April 15 for further investigation.
Bhagyashree Suryakant Sude. 
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