Mumbai: A year after a group of nine people beat an 18-year-old biker to death in broad daylight, a team from the crime branch unit (Zone I) of the Mira Bhayandar-Vasai Virar (MBVV) police arrested the ninth accused from a village in Andhra Pradesh. The other eight were arrested soon after they committed the crime on August 30, 2021. The crime was was reported from the Hatkesh area of Kashimira.
The deceased was identified as Shubham Shantaram Bhuvad (18), a resident of Silver Park in Mira Road. According to the police, the accused were on their bikes when an over speeding biker wearing a red T-shirt overtook them after passing by a close distance near the Fortune Height Building in the Hatkesh area of Kashimira.
Irate over the incident, the accused started searching for the biker. A little ahead, the accused spotted Bhuvad (who was also wearing a red T-shirt) and mounted a brutal assault, leaving him in a pool of blood with serious head and other injuries, before fleeing the spot. Bhuvad was rushed to a nearby hospital where he was declared dead.
The police team led by senior police inspector Sanjay Hazare investigated the matter and immediately arrested eight people for their involvement in the gruesome crime. However, one of their accomplices, identified as Raviprakash alias Ravi Poojary (32), managed to evade the police dragnet for a year.
Based on a tip-off, the police team arrested Poojary from a village in Andhra Pradesh. "The accused has been remanded to three days' police custody after he was produced before the court. Meanwhile, all his eight allies are in jail, "said Police Inspector Jitendra Patil.
While a case under sections 302, 143, 147, and 149 of the IPC has been registered against all the accused, the police had suspected a case of mistaken identity owing to the colour of the T-shirt the deceased was wearing. Further investigations are underway.
