According to Bodhke, Doke was a tenant of Aditya’s father Janu Jangle, a sweeper at the KEM Hospital, since October 2006.

Bodhke said Doke lived on the upper floor of Jangle’s shanty at Hanuman Nagar with a female friend Nikita (26). “The woman had two children and was living away from her husband, a drunkard. There were frequent quarrels between them,” the DCP said.

At Jangle’s house, Nikita’s children regularly played with Aditya. “The children were very fond of Doke, who would often buy them sweets and take them out,” the police said.

The motive
After a year long stay, in October 2007 Nikita apparently told Doke that she had bought land at Nallasopara and had already paid Rs 20,000 to the owner. She needed another Rs 40,000 for making the full payment.

“Doke promised to arrange the rest of the amount, which he thought would enable him to co-habit with Nikita at her residence in Nallasopara. This sowed the seeds for the kidnapping plan,” Bodhke said.

The plan
According to a statement given by Doke to the police, he hit upon the plan on February 20 as he moved around in the Hanuman Nagar area thinking of the money. Just then he saw Aditya returning home from his tuitions. “That moment, he decided to kidnap the boy and demand the required amount as ransom,” the police said.

“Jangle, who is not so well-educated, had an ATM card, which he could not operate. A year ago, he had requested Doke to show him how to use the card for withdrawing cash. Doke thus came to know that Jangle’s account had an amount of Rs 97,000,” Bodhke said.

After kidnapping Aditya Doke took him to Charni Road, where he made his first phone call to Jangle, identifying himself as ‘Ashraf’ and informing Jangle that Aditya was safe with him. After a few hours, Doke again called up Jangle and asked him for a ransom of Rs 10 lakh.

Doke took Aditya to a friend, Namita Khochre (name changed on request of investigating authorities). He concocted a story about the boy.

Greed takes over
“On February 21, on Khochre’s insistence, Doke again took away Aditya from her house and took him to Girgaum Chowpatty, where they spent the day and returned late in the night to Nallasopara station, where they both slept on the platform. “In the early hours of February 22, Doke took Aditya to the Jivdani Mountain in Virar. By this time, Doke had realised that Jangle must have filed a police complaint and that he had no hopes of recovering any ransom money and this realization gave way to frustration.”

Meanwhile, Aditya kept asking for his parents. “In frustration, Doke smashed his head against a stone lying there and strangled him with his hands. After killing the child, Doke put his body in a gunny bag and set it on fire before pushing it down over a cliff,” said Bodhke.

The giveaway
According to Bodhke, Khochre had come to Hanuman Nagar for some work as she previously used to stay there before shifting to Nallasopara. When she learnt about a boy’s kidnapping, she went to the Jangle residence, where she saw the boy’s picture.

She immediately told the Jangle family about the boy, who informed the police. “Doke was arrested on the evening of February 23, when he arrived at Hanuman Nagar to enquire about the progress of the case. After the arrest, Doke initially lied about Aditya being kept safe with a friend at Virar, but on subsequent interrogation, he confessed to having killed the boy,” Bodhke said.