Maharashtra police scan bank, demat details of slain Indian Navy sailor

Surajkumar M Dubey

The police have started scanning the bank and stock market trading accounts of Indian Navy sailor Surajkumar M. Dubey, who was allegedly kidnapped in Chennai and later burnt alive in Palghar, attempting to unravel the motives behind the ghastly crime, official sources said here on Tuesday. Ten teams of the Palghar Police are racing to crack the case with one team in Chennai securing and analysing the CCTV footage obtained from the vicinity of the Chennai Airport from where Dube, 27, was kidnapped on January 31.

As stated by the police earlier, Dube, who was working as a leading seaman with the INS Agrani in Coimbatore, was a regular player in the stock markets and had run up a huge debt of over Rs 2.30 million from family and friend circles. "We are examining each entry in his bank accounts and demat accounts and have found that he invested hugely in stocks," said a police officer.

The Palghar Police have taken it as a challenge to crack the case, 10 months after the infamous mob lynching of two Sadhus and their driver in April 2020, for which they have been targeted by the opposition BJP. Palghar Superintendent of Police, Dattatraya Shinde, is personally directing the probe teams comprising 100 personnel, one of the biggest numbers deployed for any single case in recent times.

"The most confounding aspect is who brought him all the way from Chennai to the remote district of Palghar, a distance of around 1,500 km, what was the route taken, and why he was dumped and burnt here," said the officer, requesting anonymity. There is also the mystery of 13 calls Dubey got from a particular number seeking details of his Raipur-Hyderabad-Chennai flight on the night of January 30, which could provide some clues on his abductors-cum-killers, the officer added.

Besides the Palghar Police, even the Naval police have launched their own independent probe into the incident. The local villagers, who saw Dube in a semi-burnt state after he came to drink water following the alleged murderous attempt on him in the Vavji-Valjipada forests in Gholvad on February 5, had alerted the police. Initially, he was rushed to a private hospital in Dahanu and then to the INHS Asvini Hospital in Mumbai where he succumbed to his injuries. However, he gave a dying declaration to the Palghar Police which is helping the investigations.

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