Fearing rebuke by society, minor girl commits suicide

Police identified the girl as Sangeeta Sakhya Wankhede, who succumbed to 97 per cent burns, while under treatment at the Mayo Hospital today.

Both, Sakhya and Kunwarlal, stayed in adjacent huts at Abdulshah Durgah slums at Kamptee for the past several years. Sakhya suspected his neighbour of having an illicit relationship with his daughter and nursed a grudge against the latter.

Around 5 pm yesterday, Sakhya picked up an altercation over the issue with Kunwarlal and in a fit of rage, stabbed the latter in the chest with a knife, police said.

Shaken by the incident, Sangeeta feared that it would bring a bad name to her apart from the police action against her father. Barely three hours after the quarrel, she set herself ablaze in a suicide bid and ended up sustaining more than 90 per cent burns. She was since removed to the Mayo Hospital where she died today while under treatment, police said. Further probe was on.

MURDERERS HELD: Following identification of victim and arrest of four suspected assailants, the Jaripatka police claimed here today to have solved the mystery behind the murder of the unknown youth whose body was found lying on a playground at Dayalu Society behind Bank Colony, Tuesday night.

According to police, the killing was an outcome of rivalry as the victim, Pappusingh Atmasingh Tathle (25), and the four assailants have a notorious history-sheet to their name with offences like armed robberies at Tehsil, Jaripatka and Pachpaoli police areas.

Pappusingh was, in fact, one of the accused in last year’s sensational armed dacoity of cash Rs 10 lakh near the Gandhibag branch of the UCO Bank while the cash was being taken to the bank by two employees of a prominent dealer, owning a chain of petrol and diesel pumps in and around the city.

Acting on a tip-off, sub-inspector G C Mhatre and staff picked up the four suspected killers from a place near Rani Durgavati Chwok, around 6.15 pm today. They were identified as Omprakash alias Omi Shankarlal Yadav (26), Chandrashekhar alias Chandu Govindra Uke (22), Shivshankar Swaminath Yadav (23) and Altaf Khan Aslam Khan (22), all hailing from Ramai Nagar.