35-year-old homeless druggie and alcoholic have beaten on-duty constable over his head repeatedly with a wooden plank, causing his death in the wee hours yesterday. Ajay Prabhakar Gawand (43) who was working as a constable has went to investigate after receiving a complaint that the homeless man has wrecked into a three-storey building in Dongri. The constable who tried to climb onto the terrace of a building was holed up by the accuse and beaten to death.

As per Dongri Police, “Constable Ajay Prabhakar Gawand (43) and three other policemen were patrolling the area around 2 am yesterday after received complaints of Santosh Bajirao Salvi (35) having broken into Bharat Petroleum building on P D’Mello Road in Dongri.”

The security guard of the building and few other people found Salvi and raised an alarm, immediately salvi started throwing stones at them from the terrace. Police have reached the place and using the stairs they tried to go up terrace but they found Salvi had locked the door and meanwhile, Gawand tried climbing the terrace from the balcony and in the middle he lost his balance. Taking advantage of this, Salvi began hitting Gawand brutally with a wooden plank.

Accuse hit him almost 4-5 times over his head and he was immediately rushed to JJ Hospital by a constable who was with him and he died on the way to the hospital and was declared dead around 3.30 am.

Speaking to mid-day, DCP (Zone I) Ravindra Shisve said, “The main intention of the accused (in entering the building) was theft. We have presented him in sand got police custody till November 24. He had said his name is Santosh Bajirao Salvi but we are confirming that. We also suspect that he is a history-sheeter, not from Mumbai maybe, but from Pune or Solapur.”

“Police Commissioner Rakesh Maria asked me to announce during the cremation that Ajay’s family will be getting his salary every month, which will be given as if Ajay is on duty. After his retirement period, his family will be given pension and we are going to place his wife in Mumbai Police as soon as she applies. Rakesh sir is going to bear the expense of the studies of Ajay’s son till graduation. Even the Mumbai Police will contribute towards his studies,” he added.

(Priyanka)