Sendhwa: Four including former sarpanch held for mistaken identity murder

Sendhwa (Madhya Pradesh): Sendhwa police have solved the mystery of blind murder of an elderly woman Bootibai, 60, wife of Ranjeet Barela. Police arrested all four accused involved in the crime identified as former sarpanch Kumar Dudwe and Sunil, both residents of Badgaon, Ravi and Deepu alias Deepak, both residents of Harsh Nagar, Sendhwa.

Bootibai was found dead in Badgaon village which falls under Sendhwa rural police station limits on the intervening night of November 16 and 17.

Police investigation revealed that the former sarpanch of the village Kumar Dudwe had hired three contract killers for Rs three lakh each to kill Banu Bai, whom he suspected of being a witch but instead of killing her, the accused trio killed Bootibai.

SDOP Kundan Singh Mandalai addressing a press conference on Monday said the former sarpanch was planning to kill her for many days. The accused decided to kill the woman on Diwali.

The deceased Bootibai, had came from her in-laws at Rai Umaria to her maternal home to celebrate Diwali. After dinner, the woman slept outside the house on a cot at Banu’s place. The accused thought that the woman to be killed was sleeping on the cot, attacked her and killed her. They fled thereafter.

The accused Kumar Dudve’s wife who is the present sarpanch has been elected sarpanch four times. About two years back, Kumar’s daughter had lost her mental balance and had committed suicide by setting herself on fire. Kumar suspected that Banu Bai had done witchcraft on his daughter. Since then, the accused had a grudge against the woman.