High drama unfolded outside the Navi Mumbai Police Commissionerate at CBD-Belapur on Thursday, as the family of missing Constable Somnath Kashinath Fapale, joined by villagers from his native Ahmednagar district, staged a sit-in protest demanding answers about his disappearance.
Fapale, attached to Rabale police station, was deputed for Ganpati visarjan bandobast duty at Vashi police station on September 4. That was 15 days ago. Despite frantic searches, there has been no trace of him, leaving his family anguished and enraged. On Thursday, dozens of relatives — including his wife, parents, uncles and fellow villagers from Lingdev in Akole taluka — marched to the commissionerate. Sitting at the main gate, they declared they would not move until the police gave them clarity.
Constable Somnath Kashinath Fapale. Pic/By Special Arrangement
Vaishali Fapale, wife of the missing constable, said, “It has been 15 days and my husband is still missing. I last spoke to him on September 5 around 7.45 am. He told me he would call me back after charging his phone and also mentioned being under tension and stress. But his phone switched off soon after. I waited all day for his call. When I didn’t hear from him, I began searching, contacted his friends, and even went to his duty post, but found nothing. I registered a missing complaint the same day. Even after 15 days, the police only say they are checking his call records. We are not getting any real updates. The investigation is not serious.”
His uncle, Prabhakar Fapale, said, “Fifteen days have passed, but not a single concrete update. We have given all possible leads to the police, yet the investigation is crawling. We need assurance that Somnath is alive. If we don’t get answers within four days, we will take our protest to Mantralaya and resort to self-immolation.”
Relative Ravi Chaudhary said, “If this is how the system reacts when a policeman goes missing, what hope do ordinary citizens have? We feel ignored. We won’t move an inch until proper action is taken.” Another relative, Balasaheb Kanhavde, said, “We have knocked on every door. Still, there are no answers. We demand the force show the same urgency for one of their own that they expect from common citizens.”
The protest continued for hours, with villagers chanting slogans and demanding that the police commissioner himself respond. Senior officers later intervened, assuring the family that the Crime Branch would now handle the probe and that efforts to trace Fapale were being intensified. Only after this assurance did the relatives call off their agitation.
