A 28-year-old youth was stoned to death allegedly by three persons, who mistook him to a thief, at a quarry in Phule Nagar area of Bhiwandi town in the district, police said today.

The victim, identified as Shivshankar S Bansode, along with a couple of friends yesterday went near a non-operational quarry where there was a natural pond for fishing.

However, Surej Patil, a relative of the quarry owner, mistook him to be a thief following which he and his two bodyguards attacked the youth with stones, police said.

Bansode suffered serious head injury in the attack and died, police said.
Patil and his bodyguards have been booked under sections 302 (murder), 323, 341 (wrongful restraint) and 504 read with 34 of the IPC, and also sections 3, 2 and 5 of the SC and ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, police said.

The body was sent for post mortem, they said.
The quarry belonged to one Dhiraj Patil.
A probe is being conducted into the incident by Assistant Commissioner of Police, Bhiwandi-West, Ravindra Bhosle.