Man who killed mother-son duo after robbery held
A 39-year-old man was arrested on Wednesday on charges of killing a woman in Banswara’s Khandu Colony on September 23 after looting her jewellery, the police said.
After killing the woman, the man pushed her son off a bridge into the Mahi river. He then sent a WhatsApp message from the son’s phone to a community group which said that he was committing suicide after killing his mother.
Police said that Rakesh Panchal, who has been arrested for killing the woman and her son, tried to mislead the police with the WhatsApp message.
The body of 45-year-old Devkanya Panchal was found at her house in Khandu Colony on Monday morning after the WhatsApp message from her 19-yearold son, Vivek alias Veenu, was circulated on social media. Locals informed the police about the deaths.
The police began looking for Veenu and found his body in Mahi river, 3 km from the bridge, on September 25.
Meanwhile, the police suspected foul play and began investigating.
Banswara superintendent of police Kalu Ram Rawat said that after his arrest, Panchal said that he got in touch with Devkanya around a month ago after he learnt that people mortgaged their jewellery with her for loan. “Panchal hatched a plan to loot her and told her about a puja to find matches for her two sons,” the police officer said.
Devkanya’s husband, Kantilal works in Madhya Pradesh, and her elder son is in Kuwait.
On September 23, when Devkanya closed her eyes during the puja, Panchal told her son to carry a coconut to the bridge across Mahi river (that connects Banswara with Ratlam) for visarjan. When the son left, Panchal slit her neck with a knife. Later, he went to the bridge and pushed Vivek into the river and escaped with the jewellery.
Rawat said Panchal tried to mislead the police even after he was rounded up for questioning but later he confessed to his crime.
Police recovered the hatchback car that Rakesh used during the crime, the SP said. “He bought the car on September 17,” he added.
UDAIPUR:
ILLEGAL LIQOUR SEIZED FROM TRUCK, ONE HELD
Police seized illicit liqour worth ₹10 lakhs from a truck in Kherwada block of Udaipur district on Wednesday.
The truck driver was arrested, said Rajendra Singh, the station house officer of Kherwada police station.
He said that on a tip-off that a bootlegger from Rajasthan and a few other people were about to smuggle a consignment of illicit liquor made in Haryana, the police barricaded the UdaipurAhmedabad highway at Kherwada. On suspicious, a truck loaded with bags of powder was stopped. During the checking, 350 cartons of illicit liqour was found underneath the bags that were later seized and the driver of the truck was arrested.