THANE: The anti-extortion cell of Thane city police arrested two persons from Nashik for firing and assaulting an alleged matka operator in Ulhasnagar on Wednesday.
The police said that the accused, Hitesh Thakur (23) and Sagar Shinde (23), have been arrested for firing three rounds on Sandeep Gaikwad and assaulting him with an iron rod.
The incident happened on Wednesday at around 11pm as Gaikwad was chatting with a friend at Sri Ram Chowk . “The accused came in a Verna car and attacked him with an iron rod and fired three rounds from a country made revolver. One bullet hit his leg and sustained multiple injuries due to assault,” said Rajkumar Kothmire, the senior inspector of the anti-extortion cell .
Just after the incident, the accused managed to flee the spot in a car who were then followed by the patrolling van, who in a bid to stop the accused hit them from rear due to which the accused lost the control of the vehicles and went off road, as the railway tracks were closed, taking the cover of the dark they managed to flee and vanished, said Vikas Ghodke, the police inspector of anti-extortion cell.
The unit was carrying out the parallel probe and based on technical analysis, they got a tip-off that the duo were in Nasik, hence a team went to a spot and arrested them.
The police said the reason for the attack was that Gaikwad in the past had given a contract to eliminate Thakur and that they wanted to avenge it, owing to the old rivalry.
The victim is recurpating at a nearby hospital, said a police officer.