Fearing threat to life, family wants case in fast-track court
API ASHWINI BIDRE MURDER
Family members of Assistant Police Inspector Ashwini Bidre-Gore (37) have demanded that the case should be shifted to a fast-track court so that justice is meted out soon to them.
Speaking to the Free Press Journal, Anand Bidre, the brother of Ashwini Bidre said, “We have demanded that the trial should be fast tracked since if the accused Senior Police Inspector Abhay Kurundkar and his accomplice Rajesh Patil, nephew of BJP member Eknath Khadse are released on bail, then they will use their power and political clout to tamper with the evidence and influence the witnesses too. We have demanded that the Special Public Prosecutor Ujwal Nikam should be appointed to fight our case. We fear threat to our lives too. In this scenario, we want that a judgment should be passed soon and justice should be done to us and to my sister’s departed soul.”
“Six persons from Sangli including the local police, businessmen and a journalist from Sangli are involved in the murder of my sister. But the police is not arresting the accused and instead shielding them. The proofs gathered by the investigating officer Sangeeta Alphonso are all technical evidences and do not make a strong case. There is no eye-witness in the case so far who has witnessed the crime. Neither the body has been found. The police are only relying on technical evidences like WhatsApp messages, Call Detail Records (CDRs) and CCTV footages of the accused Kurundkar and my sister who were spotted together on April 10 and April 11, 2016 before the murder,” he added. Bidre further alleged that since Kurundkar was posted at Sangli at the local crime branch, he had developed contacts with political parties as well as criminals who would manage his ill gotten money.
“The Navi Mumbai police had come to know about his connection through Call Details Records. We suspect that those six persons from Sangli who are involved in the murder are known to him since his early days in Sangli and they have aided him to commit the crime for monetary benefits,” said Bidre. According to Raju Gore, the husband of Ashwini, “The investigating officer Sangeeta Alphonso is to be transferred after May 30 and Assistant Commissioner of Police (crime) Nilesh Raut who has been investigating the case will be retiring soon. If new officers are appointed to handle the case, they will not be able to present the case properly in the court of law. So we have also demanded that Alphonso should continue to be on this case.”
“The Navi Mumbai Police Commissioner has not been briefing us properly on the case. We have stated to the authorities that if anything happens to us, they will be responsible for it,” added Gore. Last week, the Navi Mumbai crime branch recorded the statements of a scribe from Sangli who is allegedly involved in the crime. According to a statement by the accused Mahesh Falnikar, a close friend of Kurundkar, Kurundkar had uses a power cutter to cut up Ashwini’s body, store the parts in a refrigerator at his flat at Bhayandar and dumped it at Vasai creek. Kurundkar’s driver Kundan Bhandari too was arrested. They were paid Rs.20 lakhs each for the murder.
Kurundkar and Ashwini were in an extra- marital relationship since 2011. Total four persons have been arrested in this case so far. The charge sheet has been submitted at the Vashi court on Saturday.
If the accused SPI Abhay Kurundkar and his accomplice Rajesh Patil, nephew of BJP member Eknath Khadse are released on bail, then they will use their power and political clout to tamper with the evidence and influence the witnesses too — ANAND BIDRE, BROTHER