Chunabhatti shootout: Court remands arrested builder to police custody

The court also remanded nine other accused in the case arrested earlier to police custody till January 7

MUMBAI: A metropolitan magistrate court on Friday remanded builder Vimal Jain, accused in the murder of alleged gangster Sumit Yerunkar alias Pappu, to police custody till January 7. The court also remanded nine other accused in the case arrested earlier to police custody till January 7.

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During the hearing, Chunabhatti police told the court that Jain had financially supported the accused to execute the crime, and he had been in touch with them both before and after the shootout. He needed to be confronted with 13 other arrested accused in the case to gather evidence and trace unrecovered firearms and ammunition, police told the court.

The builder’s advocate Kiran Jain argued that his client was a businessman and he was in touch with the prime accused Sunny Patil as he had given him a contract to him to remove a rabbit from his construction site. He also opposed the remand plea, saying, “My client visited the police station twice after the incident and has cooperated with the police, although there is no evidence against him.”

Yerunkar was killed on December 24, 2023, in Azad Galli, Chunabhatti by his former associates Sunil Patil alias Sunny, Sagar Sawant, Narendra alias Nanya Patil, and Ashutosh alias Babu Devidas Gavand. The quartet who used to work under Yerunkar in his gang prior to 2016 had fired 21 rounds, killing the gangster, injuring his three gang members and an eight-year-old girl who was playing nearby.

During investigation, police learnt that Jain, the owner of Hiya Developers, was redeveloping the Patil Galli area in Chunabhatti, where Sunny Patil resides; he had also given a contract to Patil at his project in redevelopment.

“Yerunkar had threatened Jain and demanded a share in the project on par with Sunny Patil. But the builder did not want to give him anything and allegedly conspired with Patil to eliminate him,” said a senior police officer who is part of the probe.

Vimal Jain is a cousin of Jinesh Jain, a partner in Arihant Builders who allegedly did not give the contract for supplying construction materials to Yerunkar’s gang in 2016. Yerunkar and seven other associates were arrested that year for firing at Jinesh Jain’s office and booked under the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA).

After Yerunkar and the other accused were acquitted by a special MCOCA court in September 2023, he discovered that Sunny Patil had acquired firm hold over the area and all gang members were working under him. He had frequent spats with Patil, including on the day he was murdered, as he tried to regain control over the area and secure various contracts, said police officials.