Doctor dad’s sacked staffer kills Yug for revenge

By ​Sounitra Bose & Alka Panse Tiwari
NAGPUR: In what seems to an act of vengeance, eight-year-old Yug, who was kidnapped on Monday evening at 3.30pm, was murdered by two persons who had whisked him away on a two-wheeler. Around 30 hours after the case, city police cracked it after a former office assistant in Dr Mukesh Chandak’s dental clinic confessed under sustained interrogation to have masterminded and executed the kidnapping.Dr Chandak is Yug’s father.
Rajesh Dhawre, who was brought in for questioning on Monday night itself, is the brain behind the crime. He decided to take revenge after Chandak sacked him as office assistant a fortnight back. Police said Rajesh was also upset over repeated and continuous verbal abuse by Chandak. Rajesh hatched a plan to kidnap Yug and seek ransom, along with his friend Arvind Singh. One of them, pretending to be ‘Mohsin’, even made calls for ransom of Rs 10 crore which was whittled down to Rs 5 crore to be delivered in Mumbai. Both, Rajesh and Arvind have been arrested.
Yug was abducted by Rajesh and Arvind from outside his residence near Chhapru Nagar Chowk, Wardhaman Nagar, on Old Bhandara Road on Monday. He had no reason to suspect Rajesh’s intentions as the latter was in uniform worn by Chandak’s employees. The boy was rendered unconscious by using chloroform-dipped handkerchief by Arvind who was riding pillion. At this point, police are ruling out the involvement of more people.
After kidnapping Yug, the duo went to Babulkhera village in Patansaongi, about 27 kms from Nagpur. They had not harmed the boy until then. Rajesh and Arvind panicked when the former got a call from the police to present himself for questioning. It was then that they decided to kill the boy.
Police said Yug was strangulated and smothered, and his head smashed with stones. The body was buried in sand under pipes near a culvert located on the desolate Gomti-Gunthala Road. When water washed away some sand, they placed huge stones over Yug’s body to cover it up. When the body was exhumed, there was no shirt on it. Yug was only in his school uniform shorts and shoes.
TOI learns that Rajesh landed up at Lakadganj police station after the murder. After being questioned he was released on Monday itself.
At the time of going to press, a posse of police, led by joint CP Anup Kumar Singh and others, were at the spot to complete the formalities. A post mortem is expected to be completed on Wednesday. After checking the background of all current and ex-employees working in Chandak’s hospital, police narrowed down on Rajesh. After Chandak said he had received a call from ‘Mohsin’, Ganeshpeth police brought in a history-sheeter by the same name. Though the latter was earlier booked under the Maharashtra Prevention of Dangerous Activities (MPDA) Act, police now rule out Mohsin’s involvement.
Police feel it was Arvind who made the ransom call pretending to be ‘Mohsin’. Rajesh was again taken in for questioning on Tuesday by city police’s Zone III office. “When the two were questioned separately, there were inconsistencies in their statements,” said commissioner of police KK Pathak. Police are yet to reveal full details of the case and it is not known who cracked first — Rajesh or Arvind.
The principal of Centre Point School, Wardhaman Nagar, and other students were in TOI office when the incident took place and they came to know of the kidnapping later in the evening. Yug was a Std II student of the school. His elder brother Dhruv is in Std VIII in the same school.
Images gleaned from CCTV mounted on a building located close to the Chandak residence show one man, later identified as Rajesh, arriving a scooter. Another image shows Yug seated between Rajesh and Arvind leaving the spot.
According to the police, Rajesh, who was dressed in red shirt and white trouser, and had a white scarf tied across the face, inquired about Yug to the building watchman. Assuming that the man is from Chandak’s clinic, the watchman replied that Yug was yet to return from school. After Yug reached the building gate, the watchman saw him talking to Rajesh. Yug then asked the watchman to take care of his bag and left on Rajesh’s scooter. Not only did he fail to notice the registration number of the scooter, he also did not drop Yug’s schoolbag to his house immediately.
The Chandaks realized something was amiss when Yug’s mother Premal got a call from the driver who ferries the boy for tuition. Premal is also a doctor and practices along with her husband. She spoke to Mukesh and soon the police were brought in.
At around 9.30pm, Chandak received a ransom call on his cell phone demanding Rs 10 crore. Police traced the call to a grocery shop in Kamgar Nagar, Jaripatka. Two hours later, he got another call, this time the demand had come down to Rs 5 crore, from a cell phone. This was traced by police to one Manoj residing in Srikrishna Apartments in Jaripatka. There was silence after that.