At 11.35 am on May 25 this year, the phone rang at Ranjangaon MIDC police station under Pune Rural police. At the other end of the line was the police patil of Khandale village, a local functionary of the Revenue Department who works in coordination with the police. The information he shared was disturbing.
The partially burnt bodies of a woman, estimated to be aged between 25 and 30, and two children, aged around two and three years, were discovered that morning on the boundary of Khandale village and the temple town of Ranjangaon. The bodies were found near the Pune-Ahilyanagar Highway in Shirur taluka. Multiple teams from the Ranjangaon MIDC police station, the local crime branch of Pune Rural police, forensic teams, and the dog squad were subsequently deployed.
The police’s initial findings suggested that the victims may have been murdered elsewhere before their bodies were transported to the spot and set ablaze. The autopsy indicated that they died of head injuries before being burned to destroy the evidence. A detailed examination of the woman’s body revealed that she had multiple tattoos, following which the investigators released details of the tattoos to the public and appealed to citizens to come forward with information, if any.
The woman appeared to have been wearing a yellow sari with a floral design at the time of the murder. She was also wearing a mangalsutra. On the front side of her right hand, there was a heart-shaped tattoo and a heartbeat sign in the form of an ECG line, followed by the words ‘Mom’ and ‘Dad’ in English. The right hand also had the words ‘Jai Bhim’ written in Marathi. On the back side of the right hand, there was a tattoo that read ‘Kartik’ in Marathi, in addition to two heart signs with the letters R and S written within, and the name ‘Rajratan’ in English. On the left hand, there was a floral design tattoo. Despite such details, establishing the woman’s identity proved to be quite daunting.
Sandeep Singh Gill, Superintendent of Police (SP), who had just taken over the command of Pune Rural police, started closely monitoring the probe into the sensitive case. Seven investigation teams were formed and the officers checked 250 CCTV cameras over a distance of 150 km, besides looking into the identities of the 16,500 residents and tenants in the area.
Workers in the industrial areas of Ranjangaon, Supa, Talegaon, and Chakan were also looked into. Bank accounts bearing the names from the tattoos were checked. Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHAs) and health department staff were asked about vaccination details, and criminals on police records were checked, but there were no leads.
Adding to investigators’ troubles, heavy rain was reported in the area at the time the bodies were discovered, which possibly destroyed important clues.
Soon, SP Gill held a meeting of the investigators and senior officers involved in the case. He decided to use a specific tactic and ordered the formation of 36 teams to be sent to each district in Maharashtra to scrutinise missing persons’ cases.
Though laborious, the strategy gave the police a concrete lead. A missing persons’ case registered at Majalgaon police station in Beed district contained descriptions of a woman and two children that matched those of the bodies. Based on the tattoos, the deceased woman was identified as Swati Sonawane, 25, a resident of Vaghora in Majalgaon. She was reported missing by her husband Keshav Sonawane on May 9. It soon emerged that Swati had gone to Alandi along with her two children to stay with her parents, as there were frequent quarrels between the couple.
The police soon found that Swati and her two young sons Swaraj, 2, and Viraj, 1, had left her parents’ home in Alandi with one Gorakh Popat Bokhare, 36, her cousin’s brother-in-law, around 9 pm on May 23. Bokhare had taken Swati and the children towards Saradwadi in Shirur, where he lived.
A team from the Pune Rural police immediately detained Bokhare and questioned him, following which he confessed to having committed the brutal murders. The subsequent investigation revealed that Bokhare’s brother was married to Swati’s cousin. Bokhare had previously tried to mediate in the quarrels between Swati and her husband. Around that time, Swati and Bokhare started having an affair. Officers said Swati had been pressuring Bokhare to marry her.
On May 23, Bokhare took Swati and her children from Alandi towards Saradwadi on his motorcycle. He took an unpaved road leading towards Khandale. Opposing Swati’s demand for marriage, he strangled her and her two children and bludgeoned them with a rock. Thereafter, he poured petrol on the bodies and set them on fire in an attempt to destroy evidence, officers said.
Bokhare was placed under arrest in the first week of June and was charged with three counts of murder and destruction of evidence. He is currently in prison in judicial custody, and a chargesheet has been filed against him.