The Thane police Crime Branch on Thursday arrested two persons in connection with the murder of a senior citizen and his attendant at their Thane residence two days ago.
Sitaram Shroff (84) and Santosh Lawangare (36) were found stabbed to death at Shroff’s residence in Regency Heights building on Ghodbunder Road, and cash and valuables were found missing. The Kasar Wadavli police had registered a case of murder.
Crime Branch sources said they got the first clue when they were going through the CCTV camera footage of the building, in which two suspects were seen entering and leaving a short while later. Since there were no signs of forced entry, the police suspected the involvement of someone known to the victims.
During further investigation, the police found that Prashant Pawar (28), a Kalyan resident, whose father used to work as an attendant for Shroff before Lawangare was employed, had been missing since the day of the murder. The police then showed the images of the suspects on the CCTV footage to some people close to the family, and one of them was identified as Pawar.
“We also found that Pawar was well known to the Shroffs as he had filled in for his father on several occasions when his father was employed by the family. We traced Pawar to Dharavi, where he had been hiding after committing the crime,” said Parag Manere, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Crime), Thane police. Mr. Manere said Pawar was lying low in Dharavi along with his friend Ashish Yadav, who had accompanied him to the Shroff residence and was involved in the crime. The police recovered a cell phone belonging to Shroff and Rs. 25,000 in cash, which the duo allegedly stole from the house.
“The motive behind the crime was robbery. Pawar hatched the plan and enlisted Yadav’s aid. Some of the valuables that they took from the Shroff residence are yet to be recovered,” Mr. Manere said. The police have charged Pawar and Yadav with murder and robbery under the Indian Penal Code.
