Marine Drive police detain ‘Beer Man’ for illegal hawking

Ravindra Kantrole, who was absolved of three murder charges against him, was detained and taken to Marine Drive police station on charges of illegal hawking.

Ravindra Kantrole, who was absolved of three murder charges against him, was detained and taken to Marine Drive police station on charges of illegal hawking.

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He was later released after paying Rs 600.

Kantrole, who gained notoriety as “Beer Man” after being suspected in the 2007 serial killings where the killer allegedly left a beer can behind, was acquitted on September 17 last year by the Bombay High Court, and absolved of the three murder cases against him.

On Saturday, Marine Drive police said he was picked up for illegal hawking, but neither Senior Police Inspector Zunjrrao Gharal nor Deputy Commissioner of Police (Zone-1) Vishwas Nagre Patil were available for comment.

“I was just trying to make some money by painting the faces of people who came to the stadium,” Kantrole told Hindustan Times, adding that while police had initially not stopped him, they picked him up at around 1.30 pm after some journalists began talking to him.

“After being behind bars for over three years for a crime I did not commit, I need to earn money to take care of my family now,” he said, claiming the police have asked him to pay a fine of Rs 1,200.

His advocate Sushan Kunjuraman said: “Kantrole was picked up after his photo and story appeared in a tabloid, which the police disliked”. Kantrole was arrested on March 7, 2007, after seven mysterious deaths rocked the city between October 2006 and January 2007.

Kantrole, a Class 10 dropout, had been arrested thrice for robbery. He reportedly gave up crime, converted to Islam and changed his name to Abdul Rehman Malik.

Of the seven murder cases, he was booked for three, and acquitted in one.

He was convicted of killing a man near the Marine Drive foot overbridge on January 11, 2007, and acquitted in September 2009.