The Panvel police on Sunday evening arrested a 27-year-old man for allegedly murdering four real estate agents at a New Panvel farmhouse.
Chandrakant Dehu Waghmare had promised the victims that he would help them make a lot of money through a superstitious practice, but killed the four after getting them drunk. He then decamped with the cash they had brought along with them. Waghmare is a resident of Mohapada village in Rasayani and was arrested from Karjat while he was on the run. According to the police, Waghmare is locally known as ‘dhan baba’, who claimed that he could multiply money out of thin air after a certain amount is first brought for the “ritual”. “The accused had earlier borrowed `50,000 from the four victims for treating his son who was ill and they were pestering him to repay. He told them of his ability to multiply cash and convinced them to bring a few more lakhs out of which he would repay their money following the ritual,” said a source from the Navi Mumbai police.
The murders took place in the early hours of Tuesday morning according to the post-mortem reports. Waghmare had to bludgeon Ramdas Patil (25) to death as he had run out of bullets after shooting the other three. He also placed the weapon in the hands of one of the dead, Balram Popale (30) to create an impression that Popale killed everyone before turning the gun on himself. Pritam Gharat (35) and Nitin Joshi (30) were the other two victims.
Interestingly, Mangesh Gharat, brother of one of the victims, claimed that his brother had borrowed around `15 lakh from some friends and a few relatives, which he suspects he carried to the bungalow. Senior police inspector Suresh Bajare of Panvel police said, “Waghmare has confessed to killing the four and has been arrested. He was produced in the Panvel court and has been remanded to police custody till November 26.”