NEW DELHI, Oct 11: A cold-blooded murder just for the sake of a “bidi!” A ‘blind murder’ mystery in the Amner village in Raipur’s Abhanpur in Chhattisgarh has been solved by the police. Three men were arrested for killing 26-year-old Sonu Pal on Thursday whose body was found floating in a drain near Goda Pul.
The accused – Sumit Bande (aged 26), Ajay Ratre (aged 24), and Gulshan Gaikwad (aged 26) – are claimed to have confessed to the murder during interrogation. The police said the incident appeared to be a ‘blind murder’ when it was first reported on Friday. Locals discovered a man’s body in the drain with deep head and facial injuries.
The victim bore signs of a violent assault with a blunt object. The police registered a case under Sections 103 and 3(5) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) and started an investigation. Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Dr Lal Umed Singh directed a high-level team led by Additional SP (Nava Raipur) Vivek Shukla, Additional SP (Crime) Sandeep Mittal, and DSP Sanjay Singh to crack the case.
The team began by identifying the victim, gathering CCTV footage, and questioning nearby residents. Through technical analysis and field inquiries, the victim was identified as Sonu Pal, son of Mahesh Pal, resident of Gatapara village in Abhanpur.
As investigators retraced Pal’s last movements, they discovered he had been drinking outside a liquor shop in Abhanpur the night before his death. It was there, police said, that a seemingly harmless altercation turned fatal. Pal was murdered by Bande, Ratre, and Gaikwad over an argument on a bidi on Thursday
A senior police officer involved in the case said, “The accused and the victim were consuming alcohol separately. Sonu Pal (victim) asked them (accused) for a bidi. When they refused, he started arguing. Later they lured him on the pretext of offering drugs and took him to the drain near Goda Pul. The trio allegedly assaulted Pal with their fists and a metallic bracelet before smashing his head with a stone and dumping his body in the drain,” the officer said.
Meanwhile, SSP Dr Lal Umed Singh said Bande, Ratre, and Gaikwad were arrested and charged with murder. “The dispute was shockingly petty a fight over a bidi yet it ended in cold-blooded violence,” SSP Singh added. Police described the crime as a chilling example of how minor quarrels can spiral into senseless killings. The investigation revealed that the accused had no prior enmity with the victim.
(Manas Dasgupta)
