COMMISSIONER of Police Dr Ravinder Singal, on Wednesday, placed Senior Police Inspector (PI) Vijay Dighe, In-Charge of Wathoda Police Station, under suspension allegedly for dereliction of duty. Dr Singal shifted Senior PI Deepak Bhitade, In-Charge of Jaripatka Police Station, to the Special Branch. PI (II) Seema Datarkar, who was attached to Sitabuldi Police, has been asked to take over the charge of Wathoda Police Station. Senior PI Bapu Dhere would now be the In-Charge of Jaripatka Police Station. Senior PI Dighe, who was the investigating officer (IO) in the hit-n-run case in which an engineering student driving a car under the influence of liquor had mowed down nine members of a Rajasthani tribal family sleeping on the footpath near Dighori Toll Post, killing two of them on the spot on Sunday night, allegedly mishandled the matter.

 

After the tragedy, Dighe checked the footage of the CCTV cameras and arrested the accused driver, Bhushan Naresh Lanjewar (20), a resident of Plot No 15, Senapati Nagar, near Dighori Ghat. Dighe also had arrested Bhushan’s five friends -- Vansh Raju Zade (19), Sanmay Digambar Patrikar (20), Atharva Banait (20), Rishikesh Dhananjay Choubey (20), Atharwa Mogre (19) -- who, too, were in the ‘killer’ Hyundai Verna car (MH-46/X-8498) when the tragedy occurred. However, Dighe allegedly did not collect forensic evidence and delayed sending the accused for their medical examination. Moreover, the Commissioner of Police had received several other complaints against Dighe resulting in his suspension.