In a huge success, the Mira Bhayander-Vasai Virar (MBVV) police have cracked a 28-year-old five-murder case by arresting one of the killers, who were absconding, after he landed in Mumbai on a flight from Qatar on Thursday.
The accused murdered a woman and her four minor children on a trivial issue aroused during the children were playing. The name of the accused is Rajkumar Chauhan (47). Accused Rajkumar was then 19 years old when he committed the crime. The other accused, Anil Saroj (then age 25) and his brother Sunil (then age 21) are still absconding.
Revealing the details of the sensational case, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Crime) Avinash Ambure said that a significant breakthrough was achieved when the Kashimira police reopened the forgotten case.
“On November 17, 1994, three persons had attacked and brutally killed a 27-year-old woman, Jagrani Devi Prajapati, and her four minor kids – Pramod (5), Pinky (3), Pintu (2) and a three-month-old toddler,” said Ambure.
They killed them to take revenge for their insult. The accused youth entered the house of Jagrani Devi at Bharwad Chawl of Penkarpada at around 3.45 pm. They killed the woman and four children with choppers and knives. The incident came to light after Jagrani Devi’s husband Rajnarayan Prajapati came home at around 11 pm. Rajnarayan too died in 2006 in a road accident.
How police nabbed them
The Kashimira police had then registered an offence against the three men. However, the case had gone cold after the accused could not be traced. Last year, the crime branch restarted the investigation after MBVV police Commissionerate came into existence after curating the Palghar Police and Thane Rural police.
Senior officials of the newly-created commissionerate ordered the Crime Branch to reopen all the old cases. Police constable Pushpendra Thapa attached to Unit 1 of the Crime Branch received information about Chauhan in June last year. Accordingly, a police team has stayed in Varanasi and Jaunpur to collect more information about the accused. The team spent around 20 days there. With the help of the UP-STF, they learnt that Chauhan had shifted to Middle East countries in 2007. They also learnt that he is presently working in Qatar.
Based on the details, Police have issued a Look Out Circular (LOC) against Chauhan at all the immigration points. “On Thursday, When he landed at Mumbai International Airport, the immigration officer informed the crime branch about the accused. Then a team went to the airport and arrested the culprit from there,” said Avinash Ambure, DCP (Crime), MBVV Police.