How a ‘goodwill’ lift turned fatal: Engineering students kill drunk driver, flee with car

NAGPUR: What began as an apparent act of kindness by three engineering students quickly turned into a cold-blooded murder driven by greed to possess a red Alto car.

The trio tried to mislead cops, when they were picked up from the college campus on Friday, but blood stains on the shoe nailed their lies and they confessed to murdering an intoxicated man, Suchit Bhojapure, who they found slumped on the steering wheel of his car on Thursday. The three students have been arrested and charged with murder.

A 44-year-old spare parts supplier, Bhojapure's naked body with his skull smashed was found in the bushes near a crematorium on Khadgaon Road on Friday. Police cracked the murder within just 12 hours of finding the body in Wadi police limits after Bhojapure's father, Upasrao, lodged a missing complaint.

The accused were three second-year BTech students — Aryan Shende, 22, who's pursuing computer science and staying on rent at Venkatesh Colony, Rishabh Kamble, 20, a mechanical engineering student from Beltarodi, and Anuj Ramesh, 19, also pursuing mechanical engineering and resident of Kalamna.

What surprised police was that though the murder motive was to steal Bhojapure's car and his two high-end cell phones, the trio came from affluent families and could easily afford these luxuries. While Kamle owned a bungalow at Beltarodi, Aryan's father is a teacher at a zilla parishad school and his mother works at Nagpur Municipal Corporation.

The incident unfolded late Thursday when the three students were heading to Anuj's house in Kalamna and spotted a red car precariously parked on a flyover at Wardhaman Nagar. When they found the driver sloshed and slumped on the wheel, they asked him if they could help park his vehicle safely.

Unable to drive, Bhojapure requested the students to drop him a short distance away. When Kamble took the wheel, Bhojapure requested them to drive him to Bhiwapur for a delivery. After completing the task, he pleaded with them to drop him home near Baba Trimurti Nagar in Wadi, said police.

The students called his wife, who initially asked them to bring him home. However, on reaching the locked house and calling her back, she angrily questioned why they brought his drunkard husband back, police said. The cold response convinced the students that the man may be unloved.


Seized by greed, the trio decided to murder Bhojapure, and steal his car, change its number plate and colour, and keep it for themselves, said police. They drove to a deserted spot near a crematorium, dragged him out, and smashed his skull with stones. To mask his identity, they stripped him of clothes and dumped his naked body in the bushes and fled with the car and two mobiles.

The crime branch, led by senior police inspector Dnyaneshwar Bhedodkar and his team under additional CP Vasant Pardeshi, DCP Rahul Maknikar and ACP Abhijit Patil, launched a swift investigation after the body was discovered.

Technical surveillance, CCTV footage and call records helped trace the suspects, particularly Aryan as he had called Bhojapure's wife. He was picked up from the college campus at Nandanvan and during interrogation, he confessed to the crime and took cops to the murder site. Police later found Bhojapure's car parked near Anuj's residence.

The three students have been named in an FIR for murder. They were produced in court and remanded in police custody.