Bhatt's office firing case suspects to be chargesheeted tomorrow

Mumbai, Feb 25 (UNI) Five alleged members of the Ravi Poojari gang, suspected to be behind the firing at Bollywood film producer Mahesh Bhatt's office last year, will be chargesheeted tomorrow.

Santosh Appu Poojari (33), Ramesh Sudhershan Kanojiya (27), Arvind Mohan Devadiga (34), Nityanand Vithal Shetty (22) and Sampat Shankar Kotiyan (23) will be produced before MCOCA court Judge M R Bhatkar to seek an extension of their remand.

Investigating officer Udaysingh Rathod told UNI the chargesheet will be filed tomorrow. Two other suspects, Suresh Poojari and Sajid, are absconding.

The five were arrested from Ghatkopar where they had assembled to allegedly kill a hotelier on December 13 last year. Police had seized four imported pistols, a revolver, and 25 cartridges from them.

The police had claimed that on interrogation, the five had confessed to their involvement in the firing at Mr Bhatt's office on June 14. Mr Bhatt was not present in the office at that time but a note was left behind for him, asking to contact Ravi Poojari on a given telephone number.

They were also wanted in several other cases including that of extortion in Mumbai, Thane and Navi Mumbai, and for firing at a builder in Andheri and a hotelier in Mulund.

UNI