THANE: The Thane Crime Branch has solved a 12-year-old murder case, arresting construction contractor and “reel star” Surendra Patil (55) for allegedly abducting and killing a Dombivli resident over a property dispute and dumping his body in a forest near Murbad in 2014.Police said victim Karan Bagul, who owned around ten guntha of land in Dombivli, had entered into a development agreement with Patil in 2014. A dispute over the project arose, after which Bagul was allegedly abducted on October 4, 2014 and taken to Patil’s office in Dawdi, where he was fatally assaulted with an iron rod.Investigators said Patil allegedly roped in two workers, Chandrakant Gaykar (39) and Suresh Degawat (32), to dispose of the body in a remote forested area in Murbad. The victim’s face was severely disfigured, making identification difficult when the body was recovered by Murbad police following a local alert. With no leads at the time, it was registered as an accidental death.Bagul was meanwhile shown as missing in Manpada police records for years, until Patil’s recent arrest in an arms case led investigators to reopen the probe and establish the identity of the victim and the alleged conspiracy.DCP (Crime) Amar Sinh Jadhav said the rod used in the assault has been recovered and all three accused have been remanded to police custody till May 2.The police said Patil is a habitual offender with multiple serious cases registered across Thane district. Patil was in the news las month after a midnight raid at his Dawdi residence led the police to uncover a staggering arsenal of illegal weaponry stocked and concealed within a hidden compartment of a shoe rack in his house.
