Pune was left shocked after a 25-year-old man hacked to death a 20-year-old engineering student for spurning his marriage proposals and seriously injured the victim’s friend at Akurdi on Friday morning. The 25-year-old accused later inflicted injuries on himself and has been admitted to a private hospital. What has, however, come as a
major embarrassment for the Pune police is that the victim’s family had complained three times to the police that the accused was stalking their daughter. However, no action was taken against the accused expect to issuing him a warning.
The police tried to make amends, but a little late in the day, by suspending two police officers for not paying heed to the stalking complaints of the victim. The incident took place at around 8 am when the victim Jyotsna Karwari Bagul was proceeding towards the D.Y. Patil College on a two-wheeler along her roommate Sandhya J. Ghodse (21). Both the girls were studying in the third year of computer engineering in D.Y. Patil College.
The accused Yogesh R. Bachav (25) came from the back on a bike. He then drew a sickle from the side box of his vehicle and attacked Jyotsna several times. Yogesh then attacked himself with the same sickle. The accused also attacked Sandhya when she tried to intervene.
While Jyotsna died on the spot, Yogesh is in a critical condition and was operated upon. Sandhya’s condition is stable.
Incidentally, Jyotsna is Yogesh’s cousin (his maternal uncle’s daughter) and both hail from Nashik.
“Yogesh was stalking Jyotsna for the last few years as he wanted to marry her. However, Jyotsna and her family members were not interested in Yogesh’s proposal,” said a police officer. The police said that they would record Sandhya’s statements in order to understand the sequence of events in the case.
Meanwhile, two police officers were suspended for dereliction of duty in this case. The family of the victim Jyotsna had approached the police as Yogesh used to stalk her and send her threatening SMSes. Deputy commissioner of police, Sanjay Jadhav said, “Police inspector Rajendra Sawant and assistant inspector Vishwas Jatak from the police station have been suspended for dereliction of duty.”
“Yogesh was sending threatening messages to Jyotsna and me for the last six months. He was also stalking her. We had approached the police, but to no avail. If, the police had initiated action, then my daughter could have been saved,” said Karbhari Bagul, father of Jyotsna who is the principal of a Zilla Parishad school in Nashik.