NCP activist Arvind Sawant sent to police custody till May four

Mumbai, Apr 28 (UNI) A local court today remanded Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) activist Arvind Sawant to police custody till May four. Sawant was arrested on Wednesday night in connection with the murder of his wife Chanda on December 6, 2001.

Sawant was produced before a Kurla Magistrate court as per the directive from the sessions judge N D Deshpande yesterday. Judge Deshpande, had directed the Sion police to conduct a fresh probe into the Chanda Sawant murder case.

The Judge had recently directed Senior Inspector of Sion police station to re-investigate the role of Arvind Sawant.

The police had arrested two persons--Ramesh Raju Pujari and Sudhakar Krishna Pujari-- in the Chanda murder case and charges were framed against them.

On March 14 this year, the judge had held Ramesh guilty and sentenced him to four years rigorous imprisonment and also imposed a fine of Rs 500, while Sudhakar was discharged in September, 2005, as there was no evidence against him.

Ramesh in his confessional statement before a magistrate had said that Arvind Sawant was the main conspirator in his wife's murder.

The judge in his order had observed that there were sufficient grounds to proceed against Arvind Sawant and others who were involved in the crime as per the first investigation conducted by Sion police, but were hampered because of the sudden transfer of the probe to DCB CID (Crime).

The judge then directed the Sion police to reopen and investigate the murder case afresh.

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