Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar
In a shocking case from Jamdi village, Kannad tehsil, a mother and her teenage son murdered a local politician's son after years of relentless harassment.
The victim: Raju Pawar (45), son of former sarpanch Ramchandra Pawar. His aunt, Renuka Pawar, is the current sarpanch. Raju was active in village politics and government contracts. His mutilated body was found in a forest area on January 13. The accused: Vandana Pawar (45) and her son Dhiraj alias Tema (18), both from the same village. Dhiraj is a first-year BA student. After questioning 71 villagers, police zeroed in on the mother-son pair. Vandana confessed after six days of intense interrogation.
What happened?
Vandana revealed that Raju had been stalking and harassing her for years with bad intentions, pressuring her for physical relations. She blocked him on her phone, but he continued troubling her in the village. On January 13, Raju tried to force himself on her in a field. Dhiraj arrived, attacked Raju brutally mutilating his private parts and crushing his head leading to his death.
The twist: Movie-inspired planning
Dhiraj planned the murder after watching Drishyam, other crime thrillers, and web series. He researched how to destroy evidence and dodge police tracking. After the killing, they smashed their mobile phones, hid the body, and concealed other items to mislead investigators.
A key clue: A water-damaged photo from Vandana’s phone was recovered on Dhiraj’s device. Their inconsistent stories raised suspicion.
The case was cracked by the local crime branch team led local crime branch police inspector Vijaysingh Rajput and his team, under the supervision of superitendent of police Dr Vinaykumar Rathod and additional superitendent of police Annapurna Singh. Key operations were carried out by Vishnu Gaikwad, Ravi Lokhande, Pramod Patil, Deepak Surose, Yogesh Tarmale, Sunil Gore, Ashok Wagh, and Jeevan Gholap.