Gangster Farid Tanasha murder: Mumbai court convicts 11; 6 get life imprisonment

Tanasha was killed at his home in Chembur over a dispute related to the redevelopment of a building in the area

mumbai Updated: May 30, 2018 17:22 IST

A TV grab showing Chhota Rajan aides Sunil Poddar (in red shirt) and Farid Tanasha (behind Poddar) at a party in a Chembur club.(File Photo)

A MCOCA court in Mumbai on Wednesday convicted 11 persons for the daylight killing of gangster Farid Tanasha, a close aide of Chhota Rajan, in 2010, and handed out life imprisonment to six of them.

The court also sentenced five others for aiding and abetting the six accused, and sentenced them to 10 years’ imprisonment.

On June 3, 2010, four assailants barged into Tanasha’s house in Chembur, shot him down in his bedroom and made their escape on bikes, eyewitnesses and Tanasha’s wife Reshma had said.

Investigations revealed that six men — Jafar Razi Alam Khan alias Abbas, Mohammed Sakib Khan, Raviprakash Singh alias Teonkle, Pankaj Singh, Randhir Singh and Mohammed Rafiq Shaikh — executed the plan to eliminate Tanasha at the behest of gangster Bharat Nepali, the police had told court.

The court has convicted these six accused for conspiracy and murder, and sentenced them to life imprisonment.

The prosecution had alleged that members of Humlog Co-operative Housing Society in Chembur had appointed Prathmesh Developers and Constructions for building redevelopment. However, some society members were unhappy with the appointed developer and approached Tanasha for help. Dattatrya Bhakare, director of the construction company, had then approached Nepali and paid him Rs90 lakh to kill Tanasha. Bhakare and four others were also found guilty by the court.