Rural police arrest another accused in Polekar murder case 

The Crime Branch and Haveli police station of Pune rural police on Sunday arrested the third accused Rohit Kisan Bhame, brother of main accused Yogesh alias Babu Kisan Bhame in connection with the abduction and murder of former deputy sarpanch and government contractor Vitthal Sakharam Polekar (70). According to the police, the three assailants including Bhame assaulted Polekar with koyta and then chopped his body into pieces after their demand was rejected by the victim and family. The police teams are now searching for the main accused Yogesh Bhame, who is the mastermind behind the killing. 

Commenting on the development, rural SP Pankaj Deshmukh said, “Our probe has revealed that the accused killed the victim for a ransom and murder charges have been invoked against them. We have arrested the three men, and two of them are part of the conspiracy to kill the victim. The accused have admitted that they killed Polekar and threw his body parts in the waters of Khadakwasla reservoir. Our preliminary probe shows that the body parts recovered belong to the victim. However, the torso and head of the decomposed corpse are yet to be recovered.” 

The arrested assailants have been identified as Rohit Kisan Bhame of Donje, Shubham Popat Sonawane (24), and Milind Devidas Thorat (24), both residents of Ahilyanagar. According to Deshmukh Sonawane and Thorat were arrested from Jabalpur in Madhya Pradesh. The duo worked with eateries in Donje village before they committed the crime. Bhame and two others were produced before the court which remanded them into police custody till November 21. 

“The main accused, Yogesh Bhame is on the run. He has been booked in several criminal cases and is out on bail. In October 2024, the rural police took preventive action against him. Currently, our teams have been deployed to track and arrest the absconding accused,” Deshmukh said. 

Apart from BNS section 140 (2), the police have invoked sections 351 (2), 351 (3) and 3(5) (6) against the accused.  

Additional Superintendent of Police Ramesh Chopade said, “We used boats and drone cameras to track down the body parts in the waters of the dam. After careful analysis of the CCTV cameras of Donje and adjoining villages, we found that the footage shows a car leaving Donje and heading to Khanapur,” he said.