14 cases solved; six gangsters arrested in Mumbai

Mumbai, July 30 (UNI) Sleuths of the Crime Branch Unit-III of the Mumbai Police today claimed to have solved 14 cases of theft, murder and extortion with the arrest of six gangsters, affiliated to various city-based underworld gangs.

Addressing mediapersons here, Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime) Rakesh Maria said two 9mm pistols, two 7.62mm pistols, two 3.5mm hand guns and 45 live rounds were seized from the accused who have been identified as Mohammed Sayyed Raffakat Hussain (36), Mohammed Rizwana Raffakat Hussain (34), Ehtesham Mukdin Mohammed Kalim Shaikh (32), Sachit Jaywant Shanbaug (31), Vinod Arun Yerunkar (31) and Harish Thimappa Shetty (41).

All the accused were affiliated to the dreaded Ashwin Naik, Santosh Shetty and Hemant Pujari gangs at different times and had also worked as contract killers for these gangs as per their needs.

Mr Maria said the six accused were involved in 14 cases. Of these, three were murder cases, eight robbery-cum-murder cases, two robbery cases with attempt to murder and one case of extortion with attempt to murder.

In the eight cases involving robbery with murder, Maria said the 'gang of six' used to hire tourist vehicles from Hyderabad, Ooty,Chennai, Jaipur among other places and drive to another state, where they would kill the driver and sell the vehicle, thus making it difficult for the police to trace them.

Mr Maria said the 'gang of six' had taken a contract from the Santosh Shetty gang in July 2005 to eliminate Navin Chand Sonchand Dalal (85) at the behest of the victim's son Ketan Dalal. The police arrested Ketan but were unable to trace the shooters.

The Crime Branch has informed its counterparts in other states and police teams have also been despatched to trace and bring back the vehicles sold by the accused, he added.

UNI