Matka king's son remanded till July 21

Mumbai, Jul 9 (UNI) A local court today remanded police custody of Hitesh Bhagat, son of slain matka king Suresh Bhagat, till July 21 for his alleged involvement in criminal conspiracy to eliminate the latter in a road accident.

The city crime branch sleuths had arrested Hitesh (28) from Sun-N-Sand hotel in Goa along with more than Rs 11 lakh of cash during the wee hours yesterday.

He was produced before the 37th Metropolitan Magistrate, who remanded him.

The accused had taken part in the criminal conspiracy to kill Suresh, which was chalked out between contract killers and his mother Jaya and others early this year.

Hitesh was absconding since his name cropped up during the interrogation of co-accused of the Suresh's case.

Police have already arrested Suresh's estranged wife Jaya and Harish Rama Manjrekar (30), a close associate of Arun Gawli from Daman.

Manjrekar had allegedly awarded a ''Supari (contract)'' to a driver, Pravin Shetty, to run over and kill Suresh Bhagat and make the murder appear as a road accident.

Manjrekar had allegedly been contracted by one Subhash Roge to commit the crime at Rs 45 lakh. The motive behind the murder was allegedly to gain control over the entire ''matka'' business. Roge and Jaya were handling only the ''Kalyan matka'' business.

Suresh was killed in a road accident at Alibaug last month.

Suresh was on his way to Mumbai in his vehicle after attending court proceedings against him. The vehicle, in which, Suresh was ravelling, was rammed by a truck head-on.

Suresh and five others -- Kamlesh Salunkhe, Tushar Shahaab, Milind Kadam, Valmiki Pawar and Dharmendra Singh -- were killed on the spot. However, the driver, Kamlesh Kamble, had a miraculous escape and he narrated the incident to the police.

Around three weeks before the incident, Suresh had filed a complaint saying he feared a threat to his life.

UNI ST GR RC RK1303