After 15 years, police zero in on Dawood Ibrahim gang member
Asseem Shaikh | TNN | Updated: Apr 13, 2019, 06:20 IST
PUNE: Dawood Ibrahim gang member Santosh Gopal Nair (45) dodged the Mumbai police for 15 long years in a dacoity case. He relocated from the state capital to the city and started residing at Vishrantwadi with his family members concealing his identity.
Nair made just one mistake of contacting a gang member in Mumbai. And this helped the Mumbai crime branch, who had launched a hunt for wanted/absconding criminals ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, getting the clue that he was in Pune.
In a joint action, the officials from the Pune and Mumbai police took Nair into custody on Thursday after confirming his identity. He was handed over to the Mumbai police crime branch in the evening for action on the completion of legal formalities in a case related to planning dacoity at a diamond merchant’s shop at Dahisar in Mumbai way back in 2004.
Nair, involved in more than 40 cases in various parts of Mumbai, was on the run after he and others were booked on the charges of planning the dacoity. His whereabouts were then not known. Efforts to track down his movements proved futile because of lack of criminal intelligence information.
The Mumbai crime branch recently intercepted a phone call of a D-gang member and received reliable information that he was residing at Vishrantwadi. They shared the inputs with the Pune police for tracking his movements.
A police team led by sub-inspector Vishal Mohite, constables Santosh Bhor and Sanjay Kamble under senior inspector Arun Avhad, the Vishrantwadi police station in-charge, worked on certain clues and found that Nair, his wife and children were staying in a rented accommodation at Vidyanagar in Tingrenagar.
The inquiry revealed that Nair shifted to Pune to evade arrest. But he continued using his real name.
Nair prepared documents in the name of his wife. He never used a cellphone fearing that his location would be traced, and he would be again put behind the bars.
The Nair couple initially started selling eatables on the pavements of Vimannagar. The D-gang member later opened a mess in the name of his wife and used the money generated from the business for meeting household and other expenses.
The police team, on confirming his real identity with the help of an old photograph available on police records, took him into custody. He admitted to his involvement in several cases during the questioning.
Nair made just one mistake of contacting a gang member in Mumbai. And this helped the Mumbai crime branch, who had launched a hunt for wanted/absconding criminals ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, getting the clue that he was in Pune.
In a joint action, the officials from the Pune and Mumbai police took Nair into custody on Thursday after confirming his identity. He was handed over to the Mumbai police crime branch in the evening for action on the completion of legal formalities in a case related to planning dacoity at a diamond merchant’s shop at Dahisar in Mumbai way back in 2004.
Nair, involved in more than 40 cases in various parts of Mumbai, was on the run after he and others were booked on the charges of planning the dacoity. His whereabouts were then not known. Efforts to track down his movements proved futile because of lack of criminal intelligence information.
The Mumbai crime branch recently intercepted a phone call of a D-gang member and received reliable information that he was residing at Vishrantwadi. They shared the inputs with the Pune police for tracking his movements.
A police team led by sub-inspector Vishal Mohite, constables Santosh Bhor and Sanjay Kamble under senior inspector Arun Avhad, the Vishrantwadi police station in-charge, worked on certain clues and found that Nair, his wife and children were staying in a rented accommodation at Vidyanagar in Tingrenagar.
The inquiry revealed that Nair shifted to Pune to evade arrest. But he continued using his real name.
Nair prepared documents in the name of his wife. He never used a cellphone fearing that his location would be traced, and he would be again put behind the bars.
The Nair couple initially started selling eatables on the pavements of Vimannagar. The D-gang member later opened a mess in the name of his wife and used the money generated from the business for meeting household and other expenses.
The police team, on confirming his real identity with the help of an old photograph available on police records, took him into custody. He admitted to his involvement in several cases during the questioning.
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