Thane: Youth murdered; 2 women among 8 held

Thane (Maha), Apr 17: A 23-year-old youth, who had gone to mediate in an argument in his neighbourhood at Diva in the district, was allegedly murdered and eight persons, including two women, were on Sunday arrested in this connection, police said today.

The murdered youth was identified as Sameer Mangesh Devalkar, police said.

"A couple, Gulabchand Nikam and his wife Priti residing at B R Nagar in Diva had a dispute. Priti had called her parents and relatives to Diva from Ratnagiri to settle the issue between them. Priti's family members -- parents, brothers, sisters and brothers-in-law, came to Diva about 10.30 pm," Police PRO Gajanan Kabdule said.

"During the argument, the group attacked and abused Gulabchand and his mother. On seeing this, some nearby residents went to resolve the matter and rescued the mother-son duo from the clutches of the attackers. But in the process, Sameer and others were badly beaten up by the group, in which he died," he added.

Five persons sustained severe injuries in the incident, Kabdule said.

The accused have been booked under IPC sections 302 (murder), 307 (attempt to murder), 147 (rioting), 148 (rioting, armed with deadly weapon) and 149 (every member of unlawful assembly guilty of offence committed in prosecution of common object).

The arrested accused were identified as Dileep Govind Uttekar (60), Akash Dileep Uttekar (25), Ganesh Dileep Uttekar (23), Santosh Raghunath Ghatge (41), Vijay Shivaji Shinde (40), Preeti Gulabchand Nikam (28), Mahesh Dattaram Jadhav (38) and Swati Mahesh Jadhav (26). Further investigation into the case is on, police said adding that the body of the victim had been sent for post-mortem.

PTI