PUNE: The 19-year-old son of one of the jailed co-accused in the murder of former NCP corporator Vanraj Andekar on Sept 1 last year was shot dead by two unidentified assailants in the crowded Nana Peth area around 7.45pm on Friday, causing panic and tension in the heart of the city during peak Ganeshotsav rush on the eve of immersion day.Police identified the victim as Ayush Komkar, who is the son of Ganesh Komkar, one of the 21 accused lodged in Yerawada central jail in the Andekar murder case. Ayush is also Vanraj’s nephew. His father, Ganesh, is the husband of one of Vanraj’s two sisters with whom the former corporator was involved in a property dispute that became one of the contributory motives behind his murder last year, the police said.The murder comes barely days after the Pune police claimed to have foiled a plot to kill the relatives of Somnath Gaikwad and Aniket Dudhbhate, the other two key accused in the Andekar murder case, at Ambegaon Pathar.Pune’s joint commissioner of police, Ranjan Kumar Sharma, told TOI: “Prima facie, revenge appears to be the motive behind the murder. However, we are examining all possible angles considering that the victim (Ayush) had no direct link with Vanraj Andekar’s murder.”Sharma cited preliminary information gathered from the spot and said the victim had reached the basement parking area of an apartment building close to the Navrang Ganesh Mandal near Palkhi Vithoba Chowk after attending his tuition class. At this time, two men drove near him on a bike. “Before anyone could understand what they were up to, the duo fired three bullets at the victim and swiftly drove away from the spot,” he said.The body has been sent to Sassoon General Hospital, and a preliminary postmortem report is awaited. “Eleven teams from the Samarth police and crime branch units have been formed to trace and arrest the assailants. For now, our teams are examining CCTV footage collected from various establishments in the vicinity and are recording statements of witnesses who were present around the crime scene. A forensic team is also at the spot to collect vital pieces of evidence,” the joint CP said.Shops and establishments around the crime spot downed their shutters amid panic soon after the firing incident. “There is no law-and-order situation as of now and the situation is under control,” additional commissioner of police (East region) Rajesh Bansode told TOI.City police commissioner Amitesh Kumar, additional commissioner of police (crime) Pankaj Deshmukh, DCPs Krushikesh Rawale and Nikhil Pingale along with Sharma aand Bansode visited the scene of crime.Earlier this week, the police had detained an associate of Vanraj’s father, Suryakant alias Bandu Andekar, who heads the Andekar gang, on charges of conducting a recce on the targeted victims at Ambegaon Pathar. The detained associate was released later with a notice asking him to cooperate with the investigation. The police also arrested two men and seized a country-made pistol and two bullets, which they were to hand over to seven others of the Andekar gang to execute the murder plot on Sept 1, the first death anniversary of Vanraj.Asked about this background, Sharma said, “We have foiled the murder plot at Ambegaon Pathar by making a couple of arrests and recovering five country-made pistols so far. Our investigation will also focus on establishing a link between that plot and the present crime.”In Feb this year, the police filed a voluminous chargesheet against Sanjeevani Komkar, who is Vanraj’s sister, and 20 other accused, along with two minors, involved in the Vanraj Andekar murder case.It is the police’s case that a festering gang rivalry between Vanraj’s father, Suryakant alias Bandu Andekar (68), and the latter’s former aide, Somnath Gaikwad, combined with Vanraj’s property dispute with his two sisters, who are married to the Komkar brothers — Jayant and Ganesh — resulted in a conspiracy to eliminate Vanraj. Jayant’s other younger brother Prakash is a close aide of Gaikwad, and they planned the murder, the police said. The suspects wanted to hit Suryakant where it hurt most. Vanraj was looking after his father’s finances and business interests in Nana Peth, police said.Gaikwad broke away from the Andekar gang in 2021 and started his own criminal outfit at Ambegaon Pathar with a group of Andekar’s men from Nana Peth shifting allegiance to him, police added. Gaikwad’s aide, Aniket Dudhbhate, who led the assailants in the attack on Vanraj, was looking for a chance to get back at Suryakant, who was among the six men arrested in the Oct 5, 2023, murder of his (Aniket’s) close friend Nikhil Akhade, the police said.
