On March 24, 2011, an 84-year-old Hari Vasudev Dhamdhere was brutally murdered while he was watching a World Cup cricket match between India and Australia at his bungalow in the plush Mitra Mandal Colony in Pune city’s Parvati area. The murder case is yet to be solved.

Dhamdhere, also called Abbasaheb, was a retired chief engineer who had worked on the Koyna Dam Power project. His son operated a gas agency at Salisbury Park.

On the day of his murder, his wife had gone out to attend a religious event, and his son and daughter-in-law were also out for work. Around 7.30 pm, some gas agency employees came to the bungalow to hand over the daily collection of cash of about Rs 3.2 lakh. Dhamdhere, who was busy watching the cricket match, asked his house help to keep the bag with the money on the first floor of the bungalow. The house help left the place around 8 pm, after which Dhamdhere was alone at the house.

At around 9.30 pm, when his son and daughter-in-law reached home, they found Dhamdhere lying in a pool of blood, with the cricket match stil being relayed on TV.

They immediatley called other family members, a doctor, and the gas agency manager on the spot. After the doctor confirmed that Dhamdhere had died, the family informed the police.

As per the police, Dhamdhere’s body had more than 20 to 25 stab wounds. They also found the bungalow’s rear door open and the cash left by the gas agency staff was missing. This led the police to suspect that Dhamdhere was murdered with the intent of robbery.

After an FIR was lodged at Dattawadi Police Station (now Parvati Police Station), then senior police inspector Vijaysinh Gaikwad launched a probe into the murder. Crime Branch officials also initiated a parallel investigation to identify and arrest the killer.

The police interrogated about 25 employees of the gas agency, and questioned nearly 300 criminals, particularly those having a previous record of thefts and robberies. No CCTV footage was available.

Police said the neighbours, too, failed to notice any suspicious movement at Dhamdhere’s house. They said that the neighbours too were busy watching the World Cup cricket match, and hence nobody heard any sounds or screams from Dhamdhere’s bungalow at the time he was murdered. The police suspected that the murderer was well known to Dhamdhere. Yet, there was no breakthrough.

Vijaysinh Gaikwad, who retired as an assistant commissioner of police, said the police carried out a rigorous investigation but the case remained unsolved. People who knew Dhamdhere said he was a very helpful person and was involved in many social welfare activities after retirement.