Rajura: Man, 31, arrested for strangling father and staging death as poisoning

Rajura police have arrested Nikhil Shankar Kale, 31, in connection with the death of his father, Shankar Parshuram Kale, 59. Nikhil is a resident of Dhidsi in Rajura tehsil. He is accused of strangling his father to death. According to police, he placed a bottle of weedkiller near the body to make it look like suicide.

Shankar Kale's body was found in suspicious condition on May 20, 2025, in a field belonging to Charlie within the limits of Rajura police station. Blood was reported to be flowing from his mouth and there was a smell of poisonous chemical. For this reason it was initially treated as an accidental death. An accidental death entry was made at Rajura police station on the basis of preliminary information given by the deceased's own son.

At the scene, spray weedkiller was found and traces of poison were seen near the mouth. The early inquiry therefore appeared to point to suicide or death by poisoning. Police took charge of the body and had a post-mortem conducted at the sub-district hospital in Rajura. Doctors preserved the viscera and sent it for chemical analysis. The viscera report found no poison inside the body.

The finer details of the post-mortem report then gave the investigation a new turn. It noted injury to the neck muscles and a fracture on the inner side of the hyoid bone. Police then began a fresh investigation and sought the doctors' opinion again. Dr Shubham Shrivastava gave a clear medical opinion that the deceased had not consumed poison. According to him, the hyoid bone was broken by strangulation or hanging, and this caused the death.

After this report, police questioned the deceased's son Nikhil closely. According to police, he confessed to the crime. As emerged during questioning, the incident took place at around 7 pm on May 19, 2025. Suspecting that a gold chain was missing from the house, Nikhil's mother Manda Kale had accused Nikhil in front of Shankar Kale. A fierce quarrel followed between father and son, and they also came to blows.

Police said that at night Shankar Kale went to guard the field, while Nikhil drove a tractor in the village and returned home at 11 pm. Anger over his father's beating remained in his mind, and he reached the field at around 1 am. He is alleged to have argued again with his father, who was sleeping there, and in anger pushed him down on a cot and strangled him with both hands.

According to police, after his father died, the accused put the body on a bund near a subabul tree to destroy evidence. He brought a weedkiller bottle lying in the field, applied the chemical to his father's mouth and staged the whole scene to mislead people. To cover up his act, he had also lodged a false complaint with police.

Under the guidance of Rajura police station inspector Nitin Chincholkar, police have registered a case against the accused, Nikhil Shankar Kale, under Sections 103(1) (murder) and 240 (concealing the offence and giving false evidence) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) 2023. Further action has been stepped up. The incident has caused a stir in Rajura tehsil.