A 48-year-old Pune businessman, who made news after he whimsically commissioned a Rs. 1.27-crore shirt fashioned entirely out of gold, was brutally killed in front of his son in the Pimpri-Chinchwad township in the wee hours of Friday.
Dattatrey Phuge, nicknamed with the moniker of Pune’s ‘Golden Man’ hogged local media prime time in 2013 after he ostentatiously donned a 3.5-kg shirt made using 22-carat gold which was reportedly crafted by a team of 15 artisans from Bengal, replete with Swarovski crystal buttons and a matching gold belt.
At the time, photos showed a smug Phuge gaudily flaunting what was billed as the ‘world’s most expensive shirt’.
Known as something of a political strongman, Phuge was a history-sheeter who had floated a dubious chit fund called the Vakratunda Chit Fund in the city’s Bhosari area. Many investors were disgruntled with Phuge’s allegedly shady dealings.
According to the police, the victim, along with his 22-year-old son were returning home around midnight after attending a birthday function hosted by one of the suspects.
En route, Phuge was accosted and abducted by a dozen men who spirited him away to Bharatmata Nagar in Dighi. The attackers then murdered him with stones and sharp weapons while sparing his son.
“Prima facie, it appears to be a fallout over financial transactions as several investors had complained about gross financial misappropriation on Phuge’s part,” said a senior police officer
Phuge’s wife Seema is a former corporator who belonged to the Nationalist Congress Party. She was dismissed from her post owing to submission of a fake caste certificate.
