Out on bail, co-accused in ’21 double murder hacked to death in Patas

Pune: Mahesh Bhagwat (29), the main accused in a double murder case of 2021, was hacked to death by a gang of five men around 9pm on Friday at Patas, about 65 km from Pune.Bhagwat and three others had bludgeoned two men to death in July 2021, following an old dispute. "Bhagwat's murder was the fallout of the double murder. The police have arrested three of the five accused. Search has been launched to trace two others," Bapurao Dadas, deputy superintendent of police (Daud Division) of the Pune Rural police, told TOI.Almost five years ago, on July 4, 2021, Bhagwat and his three accomplices bludgeoned Shivam Shitkal (23) and Ganesh Makar (23) to death following a 2-year-old dispute. They often indulged in abusing each other over the dispute. On July 4, when Shitkal and Makar went to confront them, the Bhagwat and other three murdered them.In the current case, the officer said the police arrested Santosh Shitkal and Anand Makar, who were the relatives of the victims of the double murder case. "Our investigations are on," an officer from the Pune Rural police said.On Friday, Bhagwat and his three aides were driving towards Patas on two motorcycles. When they reached a bridge at Mukadamwadi on the Pune-Solapur highway, five accused in a pick-up truck hit their motorcycles. "All the four people on the bikes suffered injuries following the crash," an officer from the Pune Rural police said.He said the accused then attacked Bhagwat with sharp weapons. They hacked him to death and drove away from the spot. Local residents rushed to the spot and took the injured four people to a nearby hospital. Bhagwat, however, was pronounced dead by the doctors, he said.