A 19-year-old was hacked to death in Sambhajinagar area of Dhankavdi by a group of five men late on Thursday. This is the fifth murder in the conflict involving the gangs of Baiju alias Pramod Navghane and Datta Mane since October 2011.

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The police identified the dead youth as Rafiq Babulal Shaikh (19), a resident of Kashinath Patilnagar in Dhankavdi. Rafiq, a mechanic, received seven stab injuries and died on the spot. Rafiq’s brother Rasul (17) filed a case of murder against seven people at Sahakarnagar police station. The police detained five suspects, but no arrests have been made yet.

Rafiq’s elder brother Ashfaq was a friend of Ganaraj group leader Baiju Navghane. Ashfaq had earlier filed a complaint with the police accusing members of rival Maratha Yodha group led by Datta Mane of hurling stones at Navghane’s hotel and stealing money.

According to police, Rafiq and his brother Rasul together ran a juice centre in front of Swarup collection shop in Dhankavdi for the last five years. Rasul was working at the juice centre at 9 pm on Thursday when Rafiq reached there on a two-wheeler to help him. Later Rafiq’s mother too brought their tiffin there. After dinner, they closed the shop and then cleaned it up.

Rafiq went to throw the trash in a garbage container in front of Suyog Hospital when alleged Datta Mane gang members Ankush Mane, Dipak alias D, Vadari Manya and others attacked him with choppers and other sharp weapons.

The police said that on coming to know about the incident, Rasul rushed to the spot. He saw Rafiq lying in a pool of blood. The assailants fled seeing Rasul arriving there. Rasul carried Rafiq to Suyog Hospital.

Rafiq was then shifted to Bharti Hospital. The doctors at Bharti Hospital gave him first aid before he was shifted to Sassoon General Hospital. However, he was pronounced dead on arrival at Sassoon Hospital.