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Journalism of Courage
PUNE, JULY 4: Hanumanta T Rathod, a 45-year-old mentally deranged labourer, died after three watchmen at a construction site in Kothrud attacked him after mistaking him for a thief.
The incident, which took place on Thursday, initially went unreported as Rathod8217;s relatives performed his last rites. It came to light only when the Kothrud police arrested the three watchmen on the basis of a tip-off by an anonymous telephone caller on Friday.
Police said the three watchmen 8211; Dagadu Dhondu Phale 32, Gopal Balu Chavan 19 and Dilip Sukhdeo Shinde 8211; were slapped with charges of causing Rathod8217;s death after they admitted that he was killed on their assault.
According to the police, Rathod had gone to the construction site at Bhusari Colony early on Thursday morning. Phale and his wife, who spotted him loitering at the construction site, mistook him for a thief and raised an alarm. Panicked, Rathod ran away and hid in a thicket. Later, police said Phale summoned Chavan and Shinde and started hunting for Rathod. They allegedly hurled several stones at the place where Rathod was hiding in a bid to drive him out in the open. Rathod was killed on the spot when a stone hit him on the head, they added.
Rathod8217;s relatives started searching for him in the morning and found him lying in a pool of blood. Mistaken that Rathod might have suffered the injuries after falling on a stone, they cremated him without lodging a complaint.
