mid-day's report on Arvind Ranade's friends' suspicions about Pintoo Sharma spurs kin to act
The letter says that Ganesh Koladkar (left) would have been alive had the police managed to trace Arvind Ranade, who went missing a year ago. (Right) Pintoo Sharma
If Arvind Ranade's friends could figure it out in three days, why haven't the Valiv police been able to solve his kidnapping case in nearly a year? Yesterday, mid-day highlighted how 58-year-old Ranade's friends had immediately suspected Pintoo Sharma, but thanks to the police's failure to gather evidence, he had got out on bail.
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Now, Ranade's cousin has written to the state police chief, seeking a transfer of the case to the Local Crime Branch, blaming the Valiv police's "lethargic atttitude". Yesterday, this paper had detailed how Arvind Ranade's friends realised that he had last been seen with accused Pintoo Sharma on the day he went missing: February 21, 2018. They watched 40 hours of CCTV footage and pieced together how Sharma had taken Ranade to his rented flat in Naigaon, from where the victim never made it out.
They even caught hold of Sharma and grilled him at the same apartment, where they found a hacksaw, pliers and screw driver which they suspect was used to murder and dismember Ranade. The friends went to the Valiv police with their footage and deductions, but the cops were unable to gather enough evidence in the case. As a result, Sharma was released on bail.
Sriniwas Patwardhan
Demands case transfer Cut to last month, when the police arrested Sharma for allegedly killing Ganesh Koladkar in yet another flat he rented in Virar, where he chopped up the body and flushed the pieces down the toilet. In a letter to the Maharashtra Director General of Police (DGP), Ranade's cousin Sriniwas Patwardhan, 74, blames the Valiv police not just for their failure to solve his kin's disappearance, but also for the following murder of Koladkar.
The two-page Marathi letter (a copy of which is with mid-day) underscores "how the lethargic attitude of the then investigation team at Valiv police station led to the horrific murder and brutal hacking of 58-year-old Ganesh Koladkar by Sharma at latter's rented flat in Virar." In the letter, which will also be copied to the chief minister and the Palghar superintendent of police, Patwardhan had demanded that the case be transferred to the Local Crime Branch.
Koladkar case
At present Sharma, who claims to be a stockbroker, is in the custody of Arnala police, who are investigating the Koladkar murder case. Sources from Arnala police told this paper that tissue samples have been from Koladkar's cousin, who lives in Lower Parel. The samples will be tested to see if it matches DNA from Koldkar's remains found in the septic tank at Sharma's Virar flat.
The Koladkar's remains are being analysed by forensic experts at the state laboratory at Kalina. Sources from the Directorate of Forensic Science Laboratories (DFSL) told mid-day that the tissue had deteriorated severely due to fungal and bacterial contamination from the septic tank. "It will be tough to match the DNA because the samples are almost of no use. But still we are taking efforts with the help of bones found in the chopped fingers," said a senior forensic scientist.
11
No. of months the Arvind Ranade case has dragged on
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