Ashwini Bhondve and her son Anuj

PUNE: The Hinjewadi police on Sunday arrested a 30-year-old man and his three aides, including his girlfriend, for strangulating his wife to death with a rope and smothering his eight-month-old son near Nere village off the Katraj-Dehu Road bypass on Saturday night.

In an attempt to mislead the police, the man, Datta Vasant Bhondve, himself told the Hinjewadi police around 11.30pm that two unidentified armed men had strangulated his wife, Ashwini (25), and smothered their son, Anuj, besides assaulting him and robbing them of gold ornaments, cell phone and Rs 1.30 lakh cash. He told the police that the incident happened around 9.30pm.

However, the police found several gaps in the robbery theory and also learnt that Bhondve was having an extra-marital affair . Bhondve, a financially well-off vehicle vendor to prominent IT firms in Hinjewadi and a resident of Darumbre village in Maval taluka, wanted to get rid of his wife and son to marry the other woman in his life.

Deputy commissioner of police (zone III) Ganesh Shinde said, “We have arrested Bhondve, his girlfriend Sonali Jawale (24) and their aides, Prashant Jagan Bhor (25) and Pavan Narayan Jadhav (21). Another suspect managed to escape. Jawale is a native of Ahmednagar while Jadhav hails from Solapur. All three other arrested suspects live in Hinjewadi.”

Senior inspector Arun Waykar of Hinjewadi police and his team nabbed the four suspects. “They never thought that their bluff would be called within hours of the incident,” Shinde said.

Too many gaps in Bhondve’s story

Bhondve told the police late on Saturday night that he, his wife and son were returning home from his in-laws’ residence at Dange chowk in their car. They were driving along the Hinjewadi-Jambhe road towards Darumbre around 9.30pm. He claimed that since he was feeling nauseated and wanted to throw up, he stopped the car at an isolated spot on the road. He said that when he got out of the vehicle and was gargling, two unidentified men got into the car, strangulated his wife with a rope and smothered his son with their hands. He claimed that the suspects tied his hands and legs and robbed all their belongings.

Shinde said, “The police received an emergency call from the control room at 11.30pm and rushed to the spot with Bhondve. They tried to recreate the crime scene but realised there were too many gaps in his story. Moreover, Bhondve showed little grief about the loss he had suffered nor did he talk of having retaliated when his wife and son were supposedly attacked. The injury which Bhondve claimed the assailants had inflicted on him was superficial. Following intense grilling, he admitted to having killed his wife and son.”

Jawale plotted Ashwini’s murder

“Bhondve and Ashwini had a love marriage in 2014 and had two children. His four-year-old daughter Anushka had gone with her grandfather to some suburban area. Jawale had masterminded the plot to kill Ashwini and the two children. The entire crime was executed in cold blood after she hired contract killers Bhor, Jadhav and another man. She gave them an advance of Rs 50,000 and was to pay them the remaining Rs 1.5 lakh. The plot to kill Ashwini was being hatched over the last two months,” Shinde said.

Jawale a clerk in English medium school

Shinde said Jadhav was involved in vehicle theft cases when he was a minor while the police do not have any record of Bhor. Jawale works as a clerk in an English medium school and became friends with Bhondve on a social networking site, he added. “They were in a relationship for the last couple of years. A study of Bhondve’s cell phone also revealed that he was engaged in love chats with two other women,” he said.

Ashwini never complained of harassment

Ashwini’s cousin Mohan Shinde told TOI, “Ashwini’s parents are farmers and belong to Chandkhed village near Hinjewadi. She never complained of any harassment by Bhondve. He was a soft-spoken person. This incident is a shock to us. The woman with whom he was having an affair must have mesmerised him.”

