17-year-old Pune boy killed, police deny communal angle

PUNE: The father of a ragpicker in Pune has alleged that his teenaged son was set on fire and murdered because he was a Hindu. Some right-wing activists came in support of the man and said the brutality meted out to 17-year-old Sawan Rathod was like an act of terror group Islamic State.
The police has, however, denied any communal angle behind the murder of the boy in Kasba Peth area of Pune last week.
Sawan was hospitalised last Wednesday after sustaining severe burn injuries when three men, suspecting his involvement in stealing vehicle batteries, poured petrol on him and set him on fire on January 13. He died in hospital two days later.
"When my son was admitted to hospital, he told me that he was set on fire by three suspects after they came to know that he was Hindu," Sawan's father Dharma claimed.
Milind Ekbote, president of a right-wing group 'Samast Hindu Aghadi', alleged that the amount of cruelty exerted by three suspects was "inhuman" and the act resembles the "modus operandi" of IS. He demanded a probe by ATS into the incident.
Ekbote said they will organise a protest at the police commissioner's office on January 27.
Activists of various right-wing bodies alleged that the police had botched up the investigation in the case.
"We had given a video clip to the cops in which the deceased was seen telling that he was set on fire by three suspects, after they came to know that he was Hindu. It is as good as the dying declaration and police should investigate the communal angle. They failed to take his dying statement when he was being treated at state-run Sassoon Hospital," said Ramesh Rathod, city unit president of another group 'Banjara Kranti Dal'.
Police had arrested Ibrahim Shaikh, Juber Tamboli and Imran Tamboli in connection with the murder.
When contacted, DCP (Zone I) Tushar Doshi dismissed the claim of the activists and the boy's father as an "afterthought".
"Nothing of this sort (communal) surfaced in our investigation so far," he added.