PUNE: The Hadapsar police on Thursday morning arrested a 20-year-old woman from Kale-Borate Nagar in connection with Tuesday night's murder of Amravati prison officer's son Giridhar Gaikwad (20) near Hadapsar gliding centre.
The police also arrested her husband and his two friends, and detained a 15-year-old boy, all caught in Badlapur in Thane district. Officials said suspicion over an affair between the woman and the victim led to the murder.
The suspects were identified as Varsha Suresh Kamane alias Mahek Arman Shaikh (20), her husband Arbaz alias Arman Allaudin Shaikh (22), his friends Bhaiya alias Pradeep Ankush Chavan (20) and Sonya alias Akshay Jagannath Devkate (20).
Inspector Digamber Shinde (crime) and his team from the Hadapsar police produced the arrested suspects before judicial magistrate first class (JMFC) DJ Patil and filed a plea for their custodial interrogation for seven days. The court ordered their custodial remand till May 30.
The minor boy was produced before juvenile court and sent to an observation home.
Deputy commissioner of police (DCP-zone V) Namrata Patil told TOI, "Our preliminary investigation revealed that Arbaz, who hails from Mhada in Solapur and is currently residing at Kale-Borate Nagar in Hadapsar, suspected an affair between Varsha and Giridhar as they had studied in the same college in Hadapsar before her weddiong a year-and-a-half ago."
Patil said, "For the last two months, Varsha was staying with her parents in Hadapsar. Suspecting his wife, Arbaz recently checked her cellphone and found 12 conversations between her and the victim. He forced Varsha to ask Giridhar to meet them near the gliding centre. A heated verbal exchange broke out at the spot. The latter and his friends assaulted the victim with sharp weapons. After the attack, Varsha went to her parents, while the rest took an autorickshaw from Saswad road to reach Pune railway station, where they boarded a train to Badlapur. The investigators traced them based on cellphone tower location and other technical details."
Hadapsar division's assistant commissioner of police Bajrang Desai (ACP) told TOI, "Investigations have revealed that one of the assailants used a gupti (dagger) to stab the victim in the chest. Two other sharp weapons were recovered from the scene. The suspects will be questioned to establish their individual role in the crime."
In the court, assistant public prosecutor Jyoti Waghmare submitted that the custodial interrogation of the suspects was essential to find out the real motive and at whose behest the victim was killed. She submitted that the woman called Giridhar to meet her near the gliding centre in a well-planned conspiracy and sought time to find out from where the assailants procured the weapons or who supplied them, and if there were more accomplices. The prosecutor sought time for the police to recover clothes worn by the suspects at the time of the incident and to examine call detail records of their phones.
