Pune Sessions Court Awards Life Sentence to Murder Accused in 2018 Stabbing Case

The accused involved in the murder was awarded by life sentence by Shivajinagar sessions court today. The accused, Ashwin Vikas Gawali (resident of Ambegaon Pathar) allegedly murdered Kachru Ganpat Gawali (age 32) of Bibvewadi, Pune on June 4, 2018, near Mumbai Food Mall in Ghorpade Peth in Pune.

Accordingly, an FIR was registered under sections 302, 201, 341 and 404 against Vikas Gawali and Rizwan Mohammad Ansari at the Khadak Police Station. The deceased Kachru Ganpat Gawali was stabbed to death by Gawali. As per the police, Kachru consumed alcohol in a bar at Budhwapet and later forced Ashwin to drop him off at Swargate on his two-wheeler. Kachru even assaulted Ashwin on his head with a glass bottle while he was riding his bike towards Swargate. This enraged Ashwin and he took out a knife, stabbed Kachru multiple times, and fled the spot.

While Kachru lay unconscious in a pool of blood, the accused Rizwan Mohammad Ansari along with his accomplice lotted the deceased of his mobile phone and Rs 700 cash.

The Khadak police received information about the dead body and immediately sent the body for postmortem investigation, where the cause of death was ‘death due to stab injury’. The police initiated a murder investigation with clues to identify the accused, stating that the accused had a name tattooed on his hand he wore a belt, usually worn by security guards. Accordingly, the police questioned employees and owners of almost 60 security agencies before they traced Ashwin and his family. Further investigations revealed that Ashwin worked as a security guard at Mudra Society located on Pune Satara Road.

After reviewing more than 80 CCTV footage, Khadak police were able to solve the murder mystery by zeroing in on the accused Ashwin Gawali who was riding a black and white Honda Dio. Police teams contacted the owners of almost 116 Honda Dio bikes and collected information on 2,000 similar vehicles during their inquiry before focusing on the accused, whose grandfather was the owner of the two-wheeler. Additionally, 100 offenders with a history of robberies were questioned by the police.

Accordingly, the police received information about the accused and arrested him within 20 days of the crime. A case was registered against Ashwin, and he was under trial at the Shivajinagar Sessions Court in Pune. After hearing the arguments of both the parties Sessions Judge, Pune K.P Nandedkar awarded the accused, Ashwin Vikas Gawali, a life sentence under section 302 of the IPC, a fine of Rs 10,000, and 1.5 years of imprisonment and a fine of Rs 3000 under section 201 of the IPC and Rs 1000 fine under section 341 of the IPC.

While the accused, Rizwan Mohammad Ansari, was awarded 1.5 years of simple imprisonment and a fine of Rs 3000 section 404 of the IPC.