Pune-based businessman Dattatreya Phuge, better known as “gold man” who had shot to fame four years ago by stitching himself a shirt made out of the 3.5 kg yellow metal in addition to 6.5 kg
of golden ornaments he wore, was found stoned to death at Dighi, near Pune in the early hours of Friday.
Phuge’s 22-year-old son, who had accompanied his father to the birthday party, was unharmed by the attackers.
Forty-eight-year-old Phuge was returning home after attending a birthday function when the incident happened.
His car was waylaid near Bharatmata Nagar at Dighi on the outskirts of Pune’s twin townships of Pimpri-Chinchwad, by some “seven to eight” persons, who attacked him with sickle and stones, killing him on the spot.
It is not known if private guards, who normally accompany him, were with him when Phuge was attacked fatally.
Within hours of the incident, the police have arrested four persons in connection with the murder.
Police suspect that some dispute over a money transaction could be the reason behind the gory murder.
A money lender, Phuge used to run a private chit fund firm named Vakratund Chit Fund Company. Scores of people had invested money Phuge’s firm which had promised lucrative returns to the investors. A few investors had registered a complaint against him with the Khadki police station for having allegedly duped to the tune of Rs 13 lakh.
Phuge had hit headlines in 2012 when he stitched himself a shirt made out of the 3.5 kg gold. He would call himself “10 kg gold man” wore golden shirt and ornaments worth Rs 3.25 crore, of which the golden shirt - his new possession -was a part and it was worth Rs 1.27 crore.
Phuge had gone on record saying that he wanted to be known as Pune’s “Goldman”. “Unlike others, I have no passion or for high-end luxury cars like Audi or buying something else that is fancy. I had money and wanted to invest in gold. Even while investing in gold, I wanted to do something different. Then the idea of stitching himself a golden shirt came to me when I visited a jewellery shop”.
Velvet cloth has been used from inside to stitch the golden shirt. Though there is gold on its exteriors, it is stitched in such a way that it can be folded and kept inside a shelf like any other shirt. In all, it took jewellers 17 days to have the golden shirt stitched,” he had said. The shirt was stitched by a leading jewelery firm based at Pune, using 22 carat gold.
Phuge’s wife Seema is a former Corporator of the Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC). Her membership had been annulled after it came light that she had submitted false documents to contest the elections.
Phuge had nursed the ambition of becoming a Member of Parliament (MP) some day in future. He had also lobbied unsuccessfully for a party ticket from the NCP.
