Mumbai victims tortured,made to watch: cops

Senior policemen investigating the murder of four young men whose naked and partially-burnt bodies were found.

Senior policemen investigating the murder of four young men whose naked and partially-burnt bodies were found on Monday,over 24 hours after they were kidnapped from Kurar village in Malad East now believe that the four had been subjected to a few hours of vicious torture before they were killed.

While it was reported earlier that the bodies bore some marks of acid,a team of forensic experts confirmed that they also found human faeces near the bodies. Officers said the group of youngsters from Kurar village who first found the bodies not only reported that the victims bodies were found stripped of clothing and bearing signs of assault,but also that there were human faeces at two spots,next to each other,right next to the place where two bodies were found lined up.

Senior police officers confirmed that they suspect the faeces were from the victims,who may have been made to watch as the other two were being assaulted.

In massacres involving personal enmity in recent times,there hasnt been an instance where death has been exhibited. Either people have been killed together or have been killed instantly. In this case,the indication of fear in two victims indicates that they were seeing something too macabre,with the full knowledge that it was soon going to be their fate too, said a senior police officer.

The exact sequence of the deaths and the degree of assault will only be confirmed once the entire autopsy report is analysed. For now its enough to say that the scene must have been gruesome for their bodies to react like this, said the officer.

Officers also said that the mother of one of the victims,Dinesh Ahire,received a call at home around 3 pm on Sunday. A mans voice reportedly yelled aai,aai twice,in pain,before the phone went dead. While 26-year-old Ahire and Chetan Dhule 24 were banjo players,the other two victims,Ganesh Karanje 24 and Bharat Kudle 27,worked for private firms.

The four were abducted by a group of people after a petty fight and killed. The Mumbai Police Crime Branch on Wednesday arrested five persons Vaibhav Chauhan 23,Bholu Chaube 22,Amit Soni 23,Hemant Gupta 28 and Laxmikant Khatri 22. Of these,Soni and Gupta have previous charges against them in police stations.

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The police said that main accused Uday Pathak,who is on the run,is a serial offender and has 16 offences against him in Dindoshi and Kurar police stations. Most of these cases are for extortion,attempt to murder and for causing grevious hurt.

With Megha Sood