Mumbai News: Man stones priest to death for failing to bring back his dead wife; arrested

Less than 24 hours after he brutally murdered an elderly priest, the 34-year-old man was arrested by the Mandvi police for his involvement in the crime. According to the police, they recovered the body of an unidentified man who was in his late 50s from a road leading to Usgaon Lake on 25, May. The body was inflicted with deep injuries on his head and face. The identity of the deceased was ascertained as Bhiwa Bhikya Waida, a resident of Usgaon.

Accused wanted the decease to bring back his wife

A team led by senior police inspector Prafful Wagh started investigations into the matter and spotted a suspect while scanning footage captured by closed circuit television (CCTV) cameras installed in the premises of a switchgear manufacturing company close to the crime spot. “The suspect was identified as Kandya Mahadu Baswat alias Vinod. Since he was not using a mobile phone, tracking his location was virtually impossible.

Our teams continued to scan more CCTV footage on the route and managed to apprehend Vinod from Shirsad village.” said Wagh. Investigations revealed that the accused had approached the deceased to help him bring back his wife who had left him a couple of months ago. The deceased offered to help bring back his wife by performing rituals (which are common in tribal communities) and took Rs.2,000 from the accused.

Killing for petty reasons

However, when nothing materialised, the accused picked up a quarrel with the deceased during a binge session. The arguments turned violent when Vinod smashed the head of Bhiwa with a stone resulting in his death.

During interrogations, it also came to light that Vinod had killed a watchman over a petty reason for stopping him from plucking mangoes from a tree in 2017. He was amongst several other prisoners who were arrested for criminal offences but were allowed to go home on Covid emergency parole during the pandemic in 2020.

Vinod has been booked for murder and remanded into custody. Investigations were on to ascertain if Vinod had jumped parole by not returning to jail after the stipulated period.