Senior Police Inspector Purushottam Gawande on Thursday said, “Last night, when our mobile patrol van was patrolling the area near Charkop market, the officers came across two teenagers trying to go somewhere in a hurry. While they were boarding an autorickshaw, one of our officers saw a bulge at the back of one of the youth. Getting suspicious, when our officers tried to accost them, the two tried to flee but were chased and nabbed. We recovered a chopper from one of them and also saw that their shirts were blood-stained.”

Gawande said when the two youths were being interrogated, the station got a call from a private hospital, Mangalmurty Nursing Home, that they had admitted an injured teenager. “When we went to the hospital, we found the victim, one Vitthal Kadam lying in an injured state. When asked, he told us about being assaulted by two youths, whose names and descriptions matched the two apprehended by our officers,” Gawande said.

After further interrogation of the duo, it was revealed that Vitthal Kadam, the son of constable Rajendra Kadam attached to the Kherwadi police station and residing at Sector 2 in Charkop, had been befriended by the two accused, both residents of the nearby Bhabre Nagar, Gawande said.

“Both the accused were in the habit of drinking toddy and used to frequently take Vitthal with them to drink. Vithal’s father disapproved of this association and had scolded Vitthal and the other two on many occasions. The two arrested probably nursed a grudge against Vitthal on this account. On Wednesday night, the two again called up Vitthal and told him to meet them at an isolated under-construction site at Sector 8. There, they made him drink toddy and when he was sufficiently inebriated, they assaulted him with chopper on his face, neck and hands before making way with his gold chain, mobile phone and some petty cash,” Gawande said.