Mumbai: Bomb blasts, shoot-outs seizures mark 2006

Mumbai, Dec 27: Seven bomb explosions in suburban trains, blasts in Malegaon, renewed underworld activities, riots, day light shoot-out, seizure of arms and ammunition and narcotics containers coupled with encounters marked the year 2006 in the country's financial capital.

The Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) has successfully investigated Mumbai's seven train blasts in which more than 190 people were killed and over 800 injured and also the blasts in Malegaon in which more than 30 people were killed and at least 312 wounded in two explosion at Hamidiya Masjid and Bada Kabrastan.

ATS officials had filed large number of charge sheets against all the accused in both the cases under MCOCA (Maharashtra Control for Organised Crime Act) here.

ATS sleuths had also seized huge quantity of arms and ammunition in Aurangabad and arrested 13 people and filed charge sheet against them in MCOCA court.

This year around 29,000 cases under murder, attempt to murder, dacoity, robbery, extortion, theft, chain snatching, riots, rape and other crimes were registered in 83 police stations.

The maximum cases of 8200 were registered in western region comprising rape, chain snatching, theft, while minimum cases of 3700 were registered in south region of the Commissionarate.

Members of the Ravi Poojari gang made three attempts on Bollywood producer Mahesh Bhatt, criminal lawyer Majid Memon and TV serial producer Anand Mahendru. In efforts to curb gangster activities in the city, police had apprehended several members of Guru Satam gang including his 19-year-old son and Ravi Poojari and Chhota Rajan gang members.

During the year, at least 20 members of underworld don Dawood Ibrahim's gang were deported from Dubai and most of them were booked under strigent laws.

ATS had arrested two militants --Mushiruddin Salauddin Siddique (27) and Mansoor Mohammed Ansari (25)-- with a cache of arms and high-grade explosive, besides topographic maps of Maharashtra, Mumbai and Manali (Himachal Pradesh) from Nagpada in south central Mumbai.

Another ISI mole Kasim Khuni was nabbed from Malwani during the search operation of Crime Branch and seized counterfiet currency worth Rs three lakh from his possession.

To boost the morale of the police personnel, Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister in charge of home R R Patil had announced an increase in the salaries. After the serial train blasts in July, the Maharashtra Government had also provided additional police force to the Railways for law and order and safety of the commuters. For the investigations of the blasts, the government had made seven teams of police officers, who worked round-the-clock and finally arrested 16 accused.

The police faced a tough time in maintaining law and order in the city following riots after the statue of Shiv Sena Chief Bal Thackeray's wife Meenatai was defaced and Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar's statue desecrated in.

The year began with the arrest of two persons who raped a 27-year-old South African woman who had come to Mumbai to try her luck in Bollywood.

Painter M F Hussain was booked in February by city police for hurting the sentiments of people through his paintings depicting nude Gods and Goddesses. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Hindu Janjagruti Manch had demanded immediate arrest of Hussain.

Gangster-turned-politican Arun Gawli was taken to Bangalore to undergo a lie detector test for his reported involvement in the plot allegedly hatched by Bollywood starlet Preeti Jain to kill film director Madhur Bhandarkar. Gawli was also arrested by the EOW sleuths for misappropriation of funds and a forgery case. He was also booked under MCOCA for his alleged complicity in extorting money from a hotelier to settle a business dispute.

Bharat Dudhani, a chartered accountant advising wife of underworld don Chhota Rajan Sujata Nikhalji on financial matters was arrested under MCOCA. He reportedly laundered Rs 1.5 crore in black money which was allegedly collected through extortion.

In March, Economic Offence Wing (EOW) of Mumbai police had also grilled Board of Control for Cricket in India president Jagmohan Dalmiya for his alleged involvement in misappropriation of funds during the 1996 World Cup. He had allegedly withdrawn approximaely Rs 1.52 crore from Indian Overseas Bank, but he failed to give proper explanation to the notice issued by BCCI.

Bollywood actress Manisha Koirala was embroiled in charges of complicity in a murder case, with underworld don Abu Salem, of her secretary Ajit Diwani. The news was telecast on a TV channel, however, both Mumbai police and Manisha's personal secretary came out with a denial.

A 17-year-old college student, who made several hoax calls to the office of Alitalia Airlines in February with the intention of disrupting a Mumbai-Milan flight carrying his college sweet heart, was arrested by the police. He had made four to five calls to the airline office.

Prime witness in the Best Bakery case of Gujarat, Zahira Sheikh, was arrested in a perjury case on March 20.

The year witnessed several incidents of bank robberies including at Dena Bank at Dadar, Mumbai Central Cooperative Bank at Ghatkopar and others.

Crime branch sleuths arrested several bookies, some of them had links with to Chhota Rajan gang for placing and accepting bets on the cricket test match between India and England, which was played at Nagpur in March.

In April, extradited gangster Abu Salem had slapped a legal notice on film producer Mahesh Bhatt for making a film 'Gangster' which is believed to be on his life.

Bollywood actor and Member of Parliament (MP) Govinda had filed a complaint that some local goons were threatening his family members.

Actor Navin Nischol was arrested for allegedly assaulting his wife Geetanji.

Haj House functionary Maulana Gulam Yahya Illahi Baksh was arrested for having link with three Lashkar-e-Toiba (LoT) terrorists. He acted as a committed fundraiser for terror organisations. On April 22, BJP General Secretary Pramod Mahajan was gunned down by his brother Pravin Mahajan at his residence at Worli. Pravin is still in judicial custody.

Deepak Mallik, prime accused in TV actor Sanjana Srivastav's assault was arrested from Patna in Bihar. He was accused of shooting Sanjana from close range following an argument between them.

Dawood Ibrahim's newhew Danish Parkar was arrested under the Bombay Police Act. He was acquitted by the Metropolitan Court in first week of December.

Former Transport Minister Surupsingh Naik was arrested as he was held guilty of contempt of court for awarding licences to six wood-based units despite a ban. Naik was the Environment and Forest Minister at that time.

A contract killer Mohammed Khalid Sheikh, a sharp shooter of Chhota Shakeel Gang was gunned down by the police in an encounter.

Son of Shree Ram mill owner Abhishek Kasliwal(26) was arrested on charges of raping a 52-year-old woman in his car.

On May 31, actress Priyanka Chopra's father had filed a complaint against his daughter's former secretary Prakash Jaju for allegedly sending threatening message on cell phone and also for making calls asking them to pay more than Rs one crore.

Cocaine worth Rs 800 million was seized from a Latin American registered cargo vessel. The haul was the largest ever at the international cargo gateway of the Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT).

On July 11, seven serial train blasts occurred on the western line in which more than 190 people were killed and more than 800 injured.

ATS officials were deployed to investigate the case.

In the train serial blasts, several SIMI (Student Islamic Movement of India) activists were arrested from different parts of the country, including Patna, by the ATS officials.

Mumbai Police had increased Bomb Disposal Squads due to serial train blasts.

In August, the National Security Guard and the State Reserve Police have been deployed to guard the two nuclear installations in Maharashtra. The Coast Guard has also been asked to undertake round-the-clock surveillance of the sea, since the Bhabha Atomic Centre has an extended shoreline.

In September Govinda's nephew Janmendra Kirti Kumar Ahuja was arrested on charges of assault and molestation of Mr Dayanand Chinchorkar and his wife at Juhu. Mr Chinchorkar was Personal Assistant to the then Maharashtra Food and Civil Supplies Minister.

Another bollywood actor John Abraham was booked for rash and negligent driving, speeding and injuring two cyclists while driving his bike on Carter Road.

The Director General of Police (DGP) had transfered ten police personnel from Mumbai Commissionerate following Bombay High Court's order with regard to their alleged involvement in the disapperance of Ghatkopar blast accused Khawja Yunus.

Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) Sudhakar Poojari, who was investigating multi-crore MPSC scam was transferred from ACB (Anti Corruption Bureau) to police station and 522 others officials also transferred by home department.

Security for Sachin Tendulkar and Amitabh Bachchan and other prominent personalities were beefed up following intelligence reports they were on the terrorists target.

Two narcotics accused --Amjad Khan and Himanshu Chaudhary-- were shot dead just outside the Sessions Court here on October 16, while they were coming out at around 1330 hrs.

Two accused Nafis Shabhir Rehmani (21) and Brijesh Kumar Pandey (35) raped a twelve-year-old girl.

During the year several incidents of rash and negligent driving was registered and several persons were arrested. College student Alistair Pareira, who had rammed his vehicle at Carter Road, killing seven people and injuring the same number, was also arrested.

UNI

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