Corporator flees from gambling den after raid

MUMBAI: A Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) corporator of the Mira-Bhayandar Municipal Corporation (MBMC) fled after the Uttan coastal police raided an apartment in Bhayandar

MUMBAI: A Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) corporator of the Mira-Bhayandar Municipal Corporation (MBMC) fled after the Uttan coastal police raided an apartment in Bhayandar (East), where he, along with 12 others had been gambling. The police seized around Rs30,000 in cash and other items of value.

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The corporator has been identified as Prashant Keluskar.

Dr Mahesh Patil, superintendent of police, Thane (rural) received a tip-off that Keluskar was gambling at Mathura Palace Apartment, Indralok Phase 6. Instead of informing the Navghar police, under whose jurisdiction the incident occurred, Dr Patil ordered assistant police inspector Sunita Mokalikar of the Uttan coastal police to conduct the raid.

The other 12 were arrested under the Gambling Act. They have been identified as Ritesh Narayan Chaurasia, Charudatta Aaytoda, Chirag Mehta, Jignesh Chopra, Niraj Othiwal, Jayant Singh, Jayesh Goel, Mohammed Hussain, Younus Nadaf, Mohammed Islam, Darad Siddiqui, and Sameer Shaikh. They were fined by the Navghar police and then released.

Unconfirmed reports state that a police officer from the local crime branch had also been gambling when the raid was conducted. However, police refuse to divulge his name. According to police sources, Keluskar usually gambles with a group of seven corporators from the BJP and Shiv Sena.