Pune: In a shocking incident, an 18-year-old youth was brutally killed by his cousin in a moving State Transport (ST) bus in Dawadi, about 38 km from Pune, in Khed taluka on Tuesday morning. The accused wanted to marry a close relative of the deceased, but there were objections from the girl and her family members. The deceased was identified as Shrinath Sudam Khese, a resident of Khese Vasti in Dawadi, while the accused Ajit Bhagwan Kanhurkar, hailed from Kanhurkarmala in Dawadi.
According to the police, on November 23, 2017, Kanhurkar molested the girl, daughter of his maternal uncle, after she rejected his marriage proposal. After that he circulated objectionable photographs and posts of her. Based on a complaint from her, Kanhurkar was arrested and later released on bail. However, he pressurised the girl for marriage and threatened to make her photographs go viral if she didn’t marry him.
Her family members lodged a complaint with Rajgurunagar police station under Pune rural police on June 8, Friday but no action was taken.
At 7.30 am on Tuesday, Khese and his younger sister boarded the Rajgurunagar-bound ST bus at Khesevasti. Kanhurkar had got into the bus before them and was sitting on the last seat. As the bus moved ahead, he came from behind and suddenly attacked Khese with a sharp weapon in front of other passengers. After hearing the commotion, the driver stopped the bus and Kanhurkar fled from there. Khese was rushed to a hospital where he was declared brought dead.
Later, his family members and relatives gathered in large number and parked the body in front of Rajgurungar police station. They demanded arrest of the accused and action against policemen who didn’t act on their complaint, resulting in the murder.
Additional SP (Pune Rural) Tejaswi Satpute assured the family members that the arrest will be made soon. “An inquiry is being conducted by the SDPO against the role of the policemen and action will be taken if they were found negligent in duty,” she added.
After the assurance, the body was taken for cremation. “We registered an FIR but arrest was not done last week. Now we have launched a search for the accused,” said Police Inspector Pradeep Jadhav.
Shrinath is survived by parents and two sisters. He studied in Class XII.
