Days after a Hindu priest and astrologer named Mandar Ajit Ranade was brutally murdered on the outskirts of Mankapur village in Nippani taluk in Karnataka, the Sadalga police have cracked the murder mystery. It has emerged that Mandar Ranade, who was found dead on 31st October 2026, was murdered over solemnising an intercaste marriage.
Mandar Ranade was lured to a secluded place near the Maharashtra-Karnataka border
The victim, Mandar Ranade, lived in the Ichalkaranji area of Kolhapur district, Maharashtra. Being a priest, Ranade had solemnised an intercaste marriage. This did not sit well with the girl’s father.
On 31st October, the 35-year-old priest was called by the main accused, a Maharashtra Shirdwad village resident named Babaso alias Deepak Anna Mugadam, to Manakur on the Maharashtra-Karnataka border, on the pretext of asking Ranade to arrange another marriage.
Mandar Ranade believed it was a genuine request, as the accused called him from a different number. Ranade travelled from Ichalkaranji to Manakpur. However, when the victim arrived at the spot, the accused and his accomplices allegedly first hurled chilli powder into Ranade’s eyes, then assaulted him with a sharp-edged weapon.
Before Ranade could resist, accused Magadum attacked the victim’s neck and throat, resulting in the priest’s on-the-spot death.
On 31st October, at around 12:15 pm, his mutilated body was found by women who had gone to work in the sugarcane fields in Mankapur village on the Maharashtra-Karnataka border.
The police were immediately informed, and the deceased’s body was sent to Borgaon for autopsy. However, as no doctor was available, the victim’s dead body was brought back to Sadalga Police Station.
Anger over daughter’s intercaste marriage drove accused to kill priest Mandar Ranade
While it remained initially unclear why a priest was murdered for simply solemnising a marriage, which happened to be between individuals belonging to different caste groups, the police investigation solved the mystery.
The Sadalga police said that Anuja, the 19-year-old daughter of accused Deepak Magdum, had left home on 13th January 2026 and had an inter-caste love marriage with a man named Omkar Anand Konche from Shivnakwadi. The accused was angry that priest Mandar Ranade had helped in arranging and officiating this inter-caste marriage. The accused felt that his daughter’s inter-caste marriage had brought him disrepute in society; thus, he decided to kill priest Mandar Ranade.
Sadalga Police formed SIT; accused arrested
The police registered an FIR based on the complaint by Kedar Chandrakant Kulkarni from Ichalkaranji and launched an investigation.
“Mandar Ranade was brutally murdered. Through locals, we learnt that one person stopped him and threw chilli powder into his eyes. We found a packet of chilli powder on the road. He (Ranade) may have run from the road into the sugarcane fields, but was caught and attacked there. There are several deep cuts on his body. We have obtained information about the suspected attacker and are searching for him,” a senior Karnataka police officer informed TOI.
A Special Investigation Team was deployed under the guidance of the Belgaum District Police Administration. Based on technical analysis and intelligence information, a team of Police Inspector Vishwanath Chougule and Sub-Inspector Basagouda Nerli arrested the accused from Shirwad in just a few hours. During the investigation, the police seized the blood-stained axe used for the murder.
Following technical analyses, mobile location tracking and other measures, the police arrested the accused, Deepak Magdum. Reports say that during interrogation, the accused confessed to the crime
