Pune crime branch arrests nine while trying to loot a petrol pump to fund a murder
The names of the seven men are yet to be ascertained
Unit 2 of crime branch, Pune police, arrested nine men, including a member of the notorious Sharad Mohol gang, from the Hinjewadi area while trying to loot a petrol pump in Maan, said police inspector, Satish Nikam of Unit-2. The men were trying to loot the bank in order to fund the murder of Pandhurang Vazarkar, the deputy head of Mulshi panchayat block.
The police have recovered five pistols, one revolver, 28 live cartridges, five sickles, two cars and two motorbikes from the nine men. The gang members were in the process of looting the petrol pump when the police closed in and heard their conversation, based on which they were arrested, said PI Nikam. The recovered items are collectively worth ₹12,26,000, according to the police. The police team of 26 consisted of PI Nikam, three assistant police inspectors and one sub inspector along with 21 other police employees.
The plan was a brainchild of the main accused identified as Umesh Raghunath Waghulkar (38), who maintained political enmity with Vazarkar, according to Sudhir Hiremath, deputy commissioner of police, economic offences wing (EOW) and cyber crime.
Among the nine was Yogesh Bhau Gurav (32), who has been sentenced to life in prison, along with notorious gangster Sandeep Mohol, in the murder case of Kishor Marne. Police were on a lookout for Gurav after he failed to return from the three day parole granted to him on May 5.
Besides Waghulkar and Gurav, the seven other men were identified by the police as Yogesh Ankush Vetal (23), Vishal Navnath Vetal (23), Vishal Ananda Kalaskar (19), all residents of Shirur, Chandrakanth Dorsingh Thapa (35), a resident of Kasarwadi, Firoz Ayub Khan (40), a resident of Dalwinagar, Anwar Hasan Mulani (40), a resident of Ravetgaon, Akash Prakash Renuse (22), a resident of Velha. Thapa and Mulani, who met Gurav in jail, were known to Maghulkar. Every gang member was promised ₹2 lakh, for which the loot was to be carried out, for the murder of Vazarkar, said DCP Hiremath.
Waghulkar was externed from the city for two years in 2014 and had recently returned to the city and brought four of the five pistols recovered by the police in the raid, according to PI Nikam. The revolver and one pistol were brought by Gurav, he added. Khan and Mulani worked as car drivers in Chinchwad while Renuse is a farmer, according to the police.
The police are mulling a recommendation of the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) against the nine arrested men, added DCP Hiremath.
In 2016, Mohol was sentenced to life in prison for killing another gangster, Kishor Marne, who was a member of the Ganesh Marne gang, in 2010. Ganesh Marne had served jail time for killing Sharad Mohol's uncle and then NCP leader, Sandeep Mohol, before getting bail in 2013 from the Bombay high court.