NCP leader from Bhor killed in knife attack

PUNE: Violent crimes in Pune are rising with each passing day. Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) youth president Vijay Sampat Mirghe (32) from Bhor taluka was murdered by an unidentified man riding a motorbike who intercepted his SUV and brutally attacked him with a knife outside gate number two of Paranjpe Schemes on Matalwadi Road in Bhugaon near Pune on Thursday around 12.30am.
A land dispute is suspected as the motive behind Mirghe's murder, inspector Vishamber Golde, in-charge of the Paud police station, said.
Mirghe's family is into farming and he runs a construction business and has property dealings. One of his projects is under construction at Mangaon near Hinjewadi.
The victim's family had last seen Mirghe, his cousin Ankush and driver Vipul Gujrathi heading towards Kothrud in an SUV on Wednesday at 10am. His elder brother Sachin (35) last spoke to him over the phone at 2pm.
Sachin, in his complaint, said on Thursday around 12.30am, he got a call from Ankush asking him to rush to Matalwadi phata because Mirghe had picked up a quarrel with a person outside the gate of Paranjpe Schemes.
A panicky Sachin raced to the crime scene on a motorbike and found that some people had gathered there. He found his brother's shoe lying on the road with blood stains around it, a blood-stained knife and the SUV with its engine running struck in a pothole.
Ankush told Sachin that his brother had been taken to a private hospital because he had sustained multiple injuries on his head and body after an unidentified man had attacked him.
According to the complaint, eyewitness, Kishore Raghunath Bangar, a security guard posted at gate number two, told Sachin that the assailant brandishing a knife attacked him from behind. Mirghe on seeing him raised an alarm and rushed to the gate, but he was attacked brutally and the assailant melted into darkness.
A terrified Bangar rushed behind the gate out of fear. When he came out, he found Mirghe in a pool of blood. Bangar then alerted other guards on a wakie-talkie. He was taken to a private hospital but proclaimed dead by the doctors on admission, police said.
Golde said, "We suspect that Mirghe fell from the SUV after it ran into a pothole. The assailant took advantage of the situation and brutally attacked him. His brain had spilled out in the assault. We suspect it was a person seated inside the vehicle."
There may be more suspects behind the murder, he added. "We have a sketch of the assailant on the basis of the guard's description. The victim's family have claimed that he did not have enmity with any persons. We are recording their statements to get more details about his property dealings," Golde added.
When contacted, Sachin said Ankush and Gujrathi had alighted from vehicle on reaching Pune. Mirghe, who was behind the wheel, was on his way home when he was intercepted and attacked. "We don't known the person seated in the vehicle," he added.