Man beaten to death for ‘theft’
MUMBAI: Suspecting that a 19-year-old stole a mobile phone from their home, four men, including three brothers, beat him to death in Chandan Nagar in Vikhroli on Sunday evening, said police. The four men have been arrested under Indian Penal Code (IPC) section 302 for murder.
According to the Parksite police, Rahul Chandrakant Panchal, 19, who lived in Gulam chawl in Chandan Nagar, has cases of thefts registered against him and did odd jobs for a living. At 6.40pm, when Panchal left his home, the four accused – brothers Suresh Varma, 32, Surendra Varma, 25, Shivkumar Varma, 20, and Monu Pandey – accosted him. “One of them strangulated him, while the others started to beat him. He was lying on the ground for 20 minutes, but nobody came to help. The Varmas thought he was pretending to be unconscious,” said Pradeep Bhosale, 44, Panchal’s cousin. “They did not see him steal, but the neighbours told them they saw Bhosale around. There was no previous dispute between them. They assaulted Bhosale twice in the past 25 days over the same issue. A social worker had also intervened to stop the beatings.”
Panchal was taken to a hospital, where he was declared dead on arrival. While the police said Panchal was accused of stealing a phone, the family said the Varmas thought he had stolen ₹4,000 from their home and demanded he repay the amount. “There are many small homes in the chawl, where keep their phones to charge on the ledge of the window. There is no evidence that Bhosale stole the phone,” said Vilas Jadhav, senior inspector, Parksite police station.
According to Panchal’s family, Bhosale had left criminal ways and wanted to take up driving autorickshaw as profession. “He had started to take up odd jobs,” said Bhosale.
While the post-mortem report is awaited, the police suspect Bhosale succumbed to internal injuries.
After the incident, local residents reiterated their demand for a police chowky in the area. “There have been incidents of sexual assault on minors in the area and molestation. We need a police chowky here,” said residents Naseema Shaikh and Haseena Jalal.