PUNE: A liquor dispute allegedly turned deadly in Pune, with a 44-year-old man bludgeoning his friend to death with a baseball bat, chopping off his legs with a billhook and dumping them in a gunny sack near a garbage heap.He allegedly hid the victim’s torso inside his house in Navi Sangvi, where police found it after tracing a discarded SIM card tray recovered from the spot where the legs were dumped.The gruesome murder came to light around 11am on Friday when severed human legs were found stuffed in a gunny sack near a garbage heap on Shrinagar Lane No. 3 in Pimple Gurav.Sangvi police registered a case on Saturday under sections 103(1) (murder) and 238 (causing disappearance of evidence) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita. Relevant provisions of the Arms Act have also been invoked.During the investigation, police analysed CCTV footage and conducted a technical examination of a SIM card tray found near the garbage heap. This helped them identify the victim as Anil Baban Khade, a daily wage worker from Pimple Gurav, and eventually led them to the accused, Pintya alias Vishnu Tanaji Kumbhar (44), a resident of Navi Sangvi.A team led by senior inspector Jitendra Koli of Sangvi police station traced details linked to the SIM card tray. “When officers visited Khade’s residence, his wife and children told them that he had not visited home for the past two years. We then asked them about his friends. They gave us a few names,” police said.Officers subsequently contacted Khade’s friends. “One of them told us that Khade was staying with a new friend,” police said.Koli said the team identified the friend as Kumbhar and traced his residence. “When we reached his house, even before entering it, we noticed a foul smell in the area. The smell was emanating from Kumbhar’s residence.”“During a search of the house, we found Khade’s torso. We shifted it to the hospital and subsequently arrested Kumbhar,” he said.Police suspect that the two had an argument over liquor, following which Kumbhar allegedly assaulted Khade with a baseball bat, killing him.He then allegedly used a billhook to chop off Khade’s legs, stuffed them into a gunny sack and dumped it near the garbage heap.
