New Delhi: Police in Maharashtra's Hingoli district arrested all five people accused of stabbing Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) manager Mahesh Shelke to death, PSU Watch learnt from reliable sources on Wednesday. Among them was Umesh Pandvir. He is the dealer's son, and the first information report (FIR) named him as the man who attacked Shelke with a dagger. The others held included a woman, Lata Pandvir, as well as Shravan Wakude and Rahul Dhaije, the sources said.
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The case was registered at Kurunda police station on Wednesday. It was based on a complaint by Gullakuntla Maniprasad, the IOC senior manager who led the team to Sai Umesh Petrol Pump at Chondi Station, run by dealer Saheb Sopanrao Pandvir. He was with Shelke when he was attacked. Police invoked sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) covering murder, unlawful assembly, rioting and criminal intimidation, according to sources.
Shelke was 37. Eight months before he was killed, IOC had ranked him first among its field officers across India, sources had told PSU Watch.
Shelke was killed on October 6 at Sai Umesh Petrol Pump at Chondi Station. Its dealer, Saheb Sopanrao Pandvir, had kept the outlet shut since February, according to the FIR. IOC told him repeatedly to run it as the company rules required. When he did not, it served him formal notices. The pump still stayed shut, so the company sent Maniprasad to take control of it. Shelke, the field officer for IOC's Nanded North Retail Sales Area, went with him.
The two men reached the pump at about 2.30 pm, Maniprasad said in his complaint. They found it locked, and neither the dealer nor his son was there. Four more IOC representatives joined them, and the team spent the afternoon inspecting the pump and its machinery.
Some time later, a woman arrived in a car with a man. She said she was the dealer's wife and asked how the company could close their pump. According to the FIR, she then obstructed the team's work, shouted at the officials and hurled abuse.
The officials were getting ready to leave at about 4 pm when Umesh rode up on a motorcycle with two young men. He showed the team some documents. Shelke told him he would speak to his father, and the officials turned to go. That was when Umesh struck Shelke on the back and head with a dagger, the FIR said. His two companions hit Shelke on the shoulders and chest. Shouting that Shelke must not leave alive, the attackers forced him to the ground. Umesh then stabbed him repeatedly in the neck, stomach and face, according to the complaint.
Maniprasad and a contract worker ran towards Shelke but were blocked and threatened, the FIR said. They got away in Shelke's car while Umesh and his companions chased them on the motorcycle, waving daggers. When police reached the pump, they found Shelke covered in blood and grievously injured. An ambulance took him to Basmat. There, his colleagues learnt that he had died.
The FIR named only Umesh in full. It described the other four. They were a woman who said she was the dealer's wife, a man aged between 35 and 45 who wore dark glasses, and two young men aged about 20 and 21. Maniprasad told police he could identify each of them on sight. According to his complaint, the group had repeatedly quarrelled with Shelke over why the pump in their control was being handed to someone else to run.
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Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Hardeep Singh Puri had called the attack a "heinous and unacceptable act of violence," while IOC said it was extending all possible support to Shelke's family.
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