PUNE:A 32-year-old woman was mauled to death by a pack of stray dogs in Chakan around 2am on Monday when she was returning home from work.Some passersby spotted the body of Shobha Waghmare, hailing from Deglur in Nanded district, in the morning on the service road of Pune–Nashik highway, near Ambethan Chowk. She had come to Chakan two months ago in search of work.The victim’s clothes were torn and the body had injury marks. Residents of the area immediately alerted the Chakan police, suspecting it was a case of murder.
Not the first instance
Senior inspector Jitendra Kadam of the Chakan police said, “When we saw the injuries on the woman’s body, we initially suspected that some animals attacked her. The CCTV footage from a shop along the road revealed that the woman was attacked by a pack of six stray dogs.”The police found the woman’s purse near her body. “We ascertained her identity with the help of the Aadhaar card found in the purse and alerted her relatives in Nashik,” Kadam said.The CCTV footage showed that the six stray dogs surrounded Waghmare when she was walking along the service road, near the flyover on the Pune–Nashik Highway. “The woman picked up stones to shoo them away, but the dogs pounced on her. They bit her all over her body, including hands, legs, face and neck,” Kadam said.The officer said the woman resisted the dogs for about 15 minutes, but in vain. She succumbed to excessive bleeding from the injuries.“The woman’s body was sent to Yashwantrao Chavan Memorial Hospital (YCMCH) in Pimpri for post-mortem. The report confirmed that she died after being attacked by animals. We have registered a case of accidental death,” Kadam said.The victim’s nephew, Prajjwal Kamble from Nashik, came to YCMH after the Pimpri Chinchwad police contacted him. He toldTOI, “My aunt was estranged from her husband. She stayed in Deglur with her 13-year-old physically challenged son.”Kamble said his aunt was worried about her son’s education and future. To earn more money for his education, she came to Chakan.Waghmare did odd jobs in a private company in the MIDC, besides working in a hospital during the night hours. “We don’t know yet if she was returning from the hospital or the company when the dogs attacked her,” Kamble said.
