Cops form five teams to trace bizman killers Beware of agents asking hefty sums

A day after Dombivli businessman was found murdered in his car, police have formed five teams to trace the accused.

The police have also questioned more than 20 people, including the man’s relatives, friends and locals from the Dombivli area.

On Friday morning, 49-yearold Satish Rasal was found dead in his SUV near Galaxy store, Kalyan shop road, at Dombivli. Rasal was a businessman who gave JCB vehicles on rent.

He is survived by his wife and three daughters.

“We approached Rasal’s wife for her statement but she is still in shock. We have formed two teams from the local police station and three teams have been formed from the Thane crime branch to crack the case,” said investigation officer Vilas Shende.

Rasal’s relatives had said that they did not know if he had enmity with anyone.

“We questioned many but nothing has come of it. There are no CCTV cameras on the spot where Rasal was murdered. We will talk to close family members to investigate the case,” he added.

“In our primary investigation, we suspect that Rasal was killed by someone close to him. We have collected physical evidence from the spot which has been sent to lab and the reports are awaited,” said another police officer from Thane.

Serious offences like murder, rape and molestation have reduced to some extent in the city this year.

However, cases of cheating and criminal breach of trust have seen an upward swing in the past few months in the city.

More and more people are approaching the police after falling prey to culprits, who promise cheaper houses, seats in medical engineering colleges, double returns on investments within six months and huge lotteries.

The recent housing scam exposed in APMC is one such example.

Youths from different parts of the country visit the city police stations with complains against bogus placement agencies that take money from people promising lucrative jobs abroad and then run away closing their offices.

In 2015, the police registered a total of 563 cheating cases (under section 420 of the Indian Penal Code), against the 476 cases registered in 2014. They solved 414 and 351 cases in 2015 and 2014 respectively.

In view of the recent spate of such crimes, the police have appealed to residents to not entertain middlemen, and pay money to random placement agencies without checking their backgrounds.

“When it comes to booking a house, securing a job or engineering and medical seats, people should opt for genuine ways,” said Prashant Khaire, deputy commissioner of police (zone 1).

“Whoever tries to get such things through unscrupulous means fall prey to such culprits and lose money. The middlemen should never be entertained,” he added.

“People who come to the city for seats in medical and engineering colleges are educated. In spite of that, many of them pay Rs 20 to 60 lakh to the touts for one seat and end up getting cheated,” said a crime branch official.

“Unless people stop entertaining such culprits, they will keep targeting new victims on various pretexts. Therefore, creating awareness among people is equally important to reduce such crimes,” he said.