Goons in Pune attempt to burn woman alive over parking rage

Pune : In a shocking incident, at least four ruffians poured petrol on a woman and attempted to set her ablaze after a major ruckus over a parking spot in Kharadi area of the city, barely a fortnight after the Pune Police Commissioner Amitesh Kumar carried out multiple parades of notorious criminals, officials said here on Monday.

The chilling incident occurred late on Saturday night, around 9 pm, when the woman, Varsha Gaikwad, was present when her landlord, Mahesh Raje had parked his car at the dispute spot.

Just then, at least a dozen goons suddenly vroomed there on four-five two-wheelers, and accosted them. As per CCTV footage of the vicinity of that night, the toughies were armed with sticks and had covered their faces with scarves to hide their identity.

Taking strong objections to the parked vehicle there, they started clobbering it with sticks and then set it on fire, and also torched another scooter parked there.

As the terrified woman ran from the spot, they threw petrol on her, ostensibly to set her ablaze, but she managed to reach the safety of her home and remained bolted inside.

They assaulted Gaikwad's landlord, Mahesh Raje, who later lodged a complaint with the Chandan Nagar Police Station which swung into action.

On Sunday, the police teams managed to nab four persons, Akash S. Sode, 23, Suraj R. Borude, 24, Nayan N. Gaikwad, 19, and Vishal Sasane, 20, while Dhiraj D. Sapate, the main accused and a history sheeter, is reported to be still absconding.

“The victim woman (Gaikwad) is unharmed… the prime accused Sapate was earlier arrested and had been released on a bond of good behaviour under Sec. 110 of CrPC. Further investigations in the case are on,” Chandan Nagar Police Station Senior Police Inspector Manisha Patil told IANS.

The latest incident came just a fortnight after the new Commissioner of Police Amitesh Kumar on February 6-7 had summoned over 700 local mafia dons, their associates and operatives, history-sheeters, muggers, drug-peddlers and others to instill public confidence in the law-enforcers.