Nashik murder convict, who jumped parole 23 years ago, held

NASHIK: The city police on Friday arrested a murder case convict, who had jumped parole 23 years ago, following a chance tip-off about the man living in Gujarat’s Ahmedabad district with a fictitious name and surviving as a “vada pav” vendor.

Ravindra Pande (62) was one of the five persons of the “Birju Gij and Ravindra Pande” gang convicted for the kidnap, assault and murder of Vaibhav Katyare (16) for ransom on September 15, 1992.An offence was registered with the Nashik Road police under various sections of the Indian Penal Code and also the Terrorists and Disruptive Activities (TADA) Act for the kidnap and murder of a minor.
A court had subsequently found five persons, including Pande, guilty of the offence and awarded them life imprisonment. The police said the Supreme Court had also approved of their life imprisonment.
Pande, who was serving his sentence at the Nashik Road Central Prison, had gone on a 14-day parole leave on February 18, 1998. However, he had not returned to the jail since then. An offence under Section 224 (resistance or obstruction to lawful apprehension) was accordingly registered at the Deolali Camp police station.
The Nashik city police recently received information that Pande was in Ahmedabad and staying there with a fictitious name. Acting on the information, a four-member team, led by inspector Ananda Wagh of the crime branch (Unit II) left for Ahmedabad.
Wagh said the team spent two days in search of Pande in different talukas of Ahmedabad district. Tracing Pande had also become difficult, as he was staying there with a changed name. The police finally traced Pande to Kuha village in Daskroi taluka of Ahmedabad district.
When the police team approached Pande, he identified himself as Rajubhai Jadhav, alias Fauji. He also told the police that he had no connection with the murder. The police said following interrogation, he finally admitted that he was Pande.
On September 15, 1992, Vaibhav, the grandson of Kantilal Katyare, a trader by profession, was kidnapped by the gang of “Birju Gij and Ravindra Pande”. The kidnappers had called up the boy’s parents and demanded a ransom of Rs2 lakh. But the following day, Vaibhav’s body was recovered from a farmhouse in Deolali Camp.
Over the next few months, the police arrested five persons in the case. The accused were found guilty of the murder and sentenced to life imprisonment in 1994.