Kurla firing: Three more arrested from West Bengal

Three more persons have been arrested from Siliguri in West Bengal in connection with the gun attack on a civic contractor in Kurla on January 9. The arrested accused include alleged mastermind of the attack, Ganesh Chukkal, a Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) functionary, Sameer Sawant and Vinod Mirgal

Mumbai: Three more persons have been arrested from Siliguri in West Bengal in connection with the gun attack on a civic contractor in Kurla on January 9.

(From left) Sameer Sawant, Ganesh Chukkal and Vinod Mirgal. (HT Photo)

The arrested accused include alleged mastermind of the attack, Ganesh Chukkal, a Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) functionary, Sameer Sawant and Vinod Mirgal.

The attack happened at 7.55pm on January 9 when the contractor Surajpratap Deora was heading home. When he reached Kurla CST road near Kapadia Nagar, one person tried to stop his vehicle, while another fired at him.

Soon after the incident, Chukkal and Sawant fled in an Audi car to Nashik from where they took a friend’s vehicle and went to Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and then Delhi.

They hired a tourist vehicle from Delhi and went to Siliguri. “One police team chased them and we coordinated with the West Bengal police who nabbed them based on vehicle registration number and their photographs provided by us to them,” a police officer said and added that a police team brought Chukkal, Sawant and Vinod Mirgal, vehicle driver, to Mumbai on transit remand on Saturday night.

The accused were produced in the Bhoiwada court on Sunday. They were remanded in police custody till Monday.

During interrogation, Chukkal and Sawant denied their involvement in the firing and said they escaped from the city as they were scared after their names were given in the FIR filed by the complainant.

The total number of arrested accused has gone up to 10. The police have recovered weapons but the gun supplier is still at large. The police have also seized Chukkal’s car from Nashik.

Deora had told the police that in November last year, the Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (MHADA) had invited bids for a work. He had submitted his tender for ₹30 crore and even paid ₹45 lakh as earnest money deposit through his firm, Dharm Constructions. Deora further said that he and his cousin brother had received a call from Sawant threatening him to withdraw his bid.

The police said Sawant has previous records of threatening and assaulting contractors in Bandra and Dahisar. A case was registered against Sawant and his associates in Kherwadi police station in May 2022 for assaulting a contractor in a public place and making a video. The video was later circulated to spread fear among other contractors. A second FIR was registered at Dahisar police station for criminal intimidation for threatening a civic contractor in May, 2022, the police officials said.