Mumbai: Guard held for passing info from prisoner to associates, granted bail

In one of the chits, Harish Mandvikar had purportedly instructed his associate to threaten a prime witness in a 2015 drug case to give a false statement in favour of his friend

The Mumbai sessions court on Monday granted bail to Arjun Ghodake, a guard who was deployed at a high-security cell in Arthur Road jail,and arrested for allegedly passing messages between a gangster lodged in the jail and his henchmen outside the prison.

Representational image. (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

According to police, Ghodke was helping gangster Harish Mandvikar pass messages to his gang members.

In one of the chits, Mandvikar had purportedly instructed his associate Sachin Kolekar to threaten a prime witness in a 2015 drug case to give a false statement in favour of his friend and main accused Sajid Electricwala.

Electricwala is being prosecuted in a drug racket busted by the Charlotte unit of the anti-terrorism squad. The racket operated from Lokhandwala Complex in Andheri and a haul of 155kg Mephedrone or MD was seized from the gang. ATS had arrested seven accused, including Electricwala, in connection with the case.

On the instruction of Mandvikar, one of his henchmen had approached a witness in the drug case to influence him to depose in favour of Electricwala.

The witness later lodged a complaint with ATS, which arrested three members of Mandvikar gang who later revealed the involvement of the jail guard.

The court, however, granted bail to the jail guard considering that a role was attributed to him on the basis of statement given by a co-accused and therefore, it was not desirable to continue to keep the jail guard behind bars.