Ramdas Wagah, the man who faked his own death, is on the run
Highlights
- Accused killed a waiter, made face unidentifiable by running car over it
- Planted his ATM card, electricity bill on the body
- Forensics discovered man was strangled and did not die in accident
A Nashik man's plan to get insurance money would have done any Bollywood scriptwriter proud. Murder was done, and the body was camouflaged to give the impression that Ramdas Wagah - who wanted to raise the Rs 4 crore that was insured on his life - had died. What unravelled the plot was forensics, and the main accused, the police say, is now on the run.
The conspiracy, the police say, was hatched between four men. Wagah was the brains of the enterprise. One of his accomplices was the owner of hotel, from where they chose the victim, a waiter.
The body was found on June 9 at Trimbakeshwar in Nashik. Initially, the case looked like a road accident, the police said. The man had been run over and the face was unidentifiable. The body bore documents like an ATM card and electricity bill which identified the victim as Ramdas Wagah, a real estate broker.
But the postmortem report made it clear that it was a case of murder. The man, the report said, had been strangled.
"After the postmortem, we got to know that he was choked to death. So we started our investigation," said police Inspector Kishore Navale.
When the police approached family and friends of Ramdas Wagah, they stumbled on something totally unexpected.
The man who was supposed to be dead was alive, they were told. The body was identified as Mubarak Chand Pasha, a waiter working at a local restaurant. "Pasha, 45, was a resident of Tamil Nadu or Andhra Pradesh, who was working at the restaurant for the last 5 years," Mr Navale said, adding, "We figured out that all this was done to claim the Rs 4 crore insurance money."
Police sources said the insurance amount - Rs 4 crore - was to come from three different insurance companies for policies in Ramdas Wagah's name.
The police still haven't been able to locate and arrest Ramdas Wagah but the other three men have been arrested. The car used in the crime has also been seized, the police said.