Kurla firing: Four held, two still at large

All the four were picked up by the police from Sidhu Da Dhaba on the Mumbai Agra Highway near Bhiwandi while they were enjoying supper

Mumbai: Four persons were arrested from Bhiwandi on Friday in connection with the gun attack on a civic contractor in Kurla on Monday.

Civic contractor Surajpratap Singh Deora (HT PHOTO)

Since the shootout on Monday, several teams of the Mumbai Police were trying to trace the accused. “Our team arrested four people identified as Sagar Yerunkar, 29, Karan Thorat, 20, Abhishek Sawant, 26, Vinod Kamble, 29, all residents of Ghatkopar,” said Manoj Patil, deputy commissioner of police, Zone V.

All of them were picked up from Sidhu Da Dhaba on the Mumbai Agra Highway near Bhiwandi while they were enjoying supper, said Patil.

The police said Yerunkar was the one who fired at the complainant, Surajpratap Singh Deora’s car while he came out of L-Ward office of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation and the three others were present at the spot. He added that two more persons are wanted in the case.

“The complainant has named Sameer Sawant and MNS functionary Ganesh Chukkal as main suspects and we are searching for them as well,” said Ravindra Howale, senior police inspector of Kurla police station.

Preliminary investigation showed that Sawant was in touch with the shooters and had promised ₹10 lakh to them. Meanwhile Sawant and Ganesh Chukkal were promised 3% commission of the ₹45 crore MHADA contract, dispute over which had led Deora’s rival to plan the attack.

“Things will become clearer after we get the main accused – Sawant and Chukkal both of whom are on the run and are believed to be in north India,” said the police officer.