Mumbai: Three arrested for conspiring to murder slumlord

Thakur allegedly hired two men from Nashik to execute the murder and in return promised them partnership in a hotel he was planning to construct.

THE MUMBAI Police Crime Branch has arrested three persons, including a small-time builder, for allegedly conspiring to murder a slumlord in Kandivali. According to police, Ganesh Thakur, the main accused, wanted to bump off the complainant after the latter had beaten him up in bar a few months ago.

Thakur allegedly hired two men from Nashik to execute the murder and in return promised them partnership in a hotel he was planning to construct.

Deputy Commissioner of Police, Dilip Sawant, said: “Upset over being beaten up by the complainant, Thakur had hired Shamsher Bairagi and Sagar More, both Nashik residents, to bump off the complainant. We were monitoring their activities and arrested them yesterday when they were about to execute their plan.”

An officer said the complainant himself had cases registered against him. “Thakur and the complainant both wanted to stamp their authority in the Kandivali area that had led to fights in the past as well,” an officer said.

In another case, the Mumbai Crime Branch on Sunday night arrested an accused who had been on the run, after he had escaped while being taken from Sabarmati prison to hospital in April.

The accused, Siraj Pathan (32), alias Udta Kabutar who was sentenced to life imprisonment, has at least five cases registered against him ranging from attempt to murder to robbery in Gujarat.

An officer from unit 3 of the Crime Branch that arrested Pathan said, “ We had information that Pathan, who had been on the run from the Gujarat Police, was coming near a metro station in Andheri on Sunday evening. Based on that information, we arrested him. He will be handed over to the Gujarat police.”