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Mohol murder accused remanded to police custody till Jan 20
Both Shelar and Ramdas Marane are on-record criminals, and police suspects they are masterminds in the conspiracy to eliminate Mohol
Suspecting that the accused, Vitthal Mahadev Shelar, 36, had met wanted accused, Ganesh Marne, in connection with the murder of gangster Sharad Mohol one month before the actual murder took place, the police sought and got custody of both Shelar and another accused, Ramdas Nanasaheb Marane, 36, on Tuesday.
On Tuesday, Shelar and Ramdas Marane were produced in court amid tight security. Assistant public prosecutor Neelam Yadav Ithape, while seeking police custody of both the accused, informed the court that during investigation, they had been found to be part of the conspiracy. “One month before the murder, Shelar held a meeting with a wanted accused in this case. To get more details of this meeting such as who attended it and where was it held, we demand police custody of the accused,” Ithape said.
Both Shelar and Ramdas Marane are on-record criminals, and police suspects they are masterminds in the conspiracy to eliminate Mohol.
Assistant commissioner of police (ACP) Sunil Tambe in his submission said that there is one more mastermind in this case who was in contact with Shelar. “Shelar was involved in 17 cases. Both Shelar and Ramdas Marane are on-record criminals, and police suspects they are masterminds in the conspiracy to eliminate Mohol. For further investigation, we demand police custody,” Tambe said. He also said that the police need to seize an SUV among other things. The police in their submission said that the search for two wanted accused in this case - Ganesh Marne and one more from Madhya Pradesh who had sold firearms to the accused – is underway.
Advocate Dadasheb Bhoite, who appeared on behalf of Shelar, said, “My client (Shelar) was fully cooperating with the police. He was produced twice before the police even after being arrested. There is no specific ground mentioned in the report to remand my clients to police custody. Shelar being an on-record criminal is no ground for remanding him to police custody.”
Bhoite claimed that his client (Shelar) had been illegally detained for the past two days. “The police said he was absconding and arrested him from Panvel. In fact, my client was in their custody for the last two days,” Bhoite said. “My client (Shelar) was falsely arrested in this case only because of his previous records. The police do not have any nexus links related to my clients,” said Rohini Langhe.
ACP Tambe reiterated his demand for the police custody of Shelar and Ramdas Marane and said that while the police had arrested the perpetrators in the case, they had to still arrest the conspirators. Upon hearing the arguments, judicial magistrate first class A C Birajdar remanded Shelar and Ramdas Marane to police custody till January 20.
On Monday, the Pune crime branch along with the Navi Mumbai police arrested Shelar and Ramdas Marane. Shelar is a well-known gangster from the Mulshi area and has been booked for murder, attempted murder, extortion and other criminal activities. In 2014, he was booked under the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA). According to the police, there was rivalry between Shelar and Mohol over the latter’s dominance in the area. Earlier, Shelar was part of the Marne gang but after the death of Kishor Marne, he started recruiting boys for his gang.
