Mumbai, September 13: Two persons have been arrested in connection with the murder of a petrol pump owner, who was found dead in his car in Maharashtra's Thane district. Based on a tip-off, the police on Wednesday arrested the accused, Mukesh Khubchandani and Anil Rajkumar, from Gorakhpur in Uttar Pradesh, where they had come to sell the valuables they had allegedly stolen from the victim, Ramchandra Gurukukhdas Kakrani.
Kakrani, who owned a petrol pump, was found dead in his car on the Mumbai-Ahmedabad highway on August 25, said Datta Shinde, additional commissioner of police, MBVV. He was reportedly abducted and strangled by his driver Khubchandani and two others and was robbed of cash, a diamond ring, and a watch, he said. The Naigaon police registered a case sections 140(2) (kidnapping or abducting for murder or ransom), 103(1) (murder), 309(2) (robbery), and 238 (causing disappearance of evidence or giving false information) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita. A probe revealed that Khubchandani allegedly killed the victim with the help of two accomplices, who hailed from a place near the Nepal border, the official said.
A special team was dispatched to Siddharth Nagar, Uttar Pradesh, where the local police informed them that the accused had already escaped to Lumbini of Nepal, he said. As the accused couldn't sell the stolen valuables in the neighbouring country, two of them arrived in Gorakhpur and were nabbed, the official said.
Assistant Commissioner of Police (Crime) Madan Ballal said stolen valuables worth Rs 15.17 lakh have been recovered from the duo. Khubchandani has offences to his name in different police stations since 2012, he said.