NCP corporator's son arrested

A 40-year-old man was arrested on Monday by the anti-terrorism squad (ATS) for alleged involvement in the Pune serial blast case.

The accused Bunty Jagirdar, a resident of Shrirampur in Ahmednagar district, was arrested from his hometown which is around 193 kilometers from Pune.

Jagirdhar alias Aslam Shaikh’s mother Raziabi is a member of the Shrirampur Municipal Council. She was elected  to the Malegaon Municipal Council on a Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) ticket. Police sources said he had been a suspect in two murder cases in the city and has been held by the ATS on 12 previous occasions.

ATS officials who spoke to DNA on the condition of anonymity said the decision to arrest Jagirdar was taken after Irfan Landge, who was arrested earlier, revealed that he had purchased revolvers and cartridges from Jagirdar.

Bhanudas Murkute, former MLA from Shrirampur, said, “Jagirdar’s mother is a member of Shrirampur Municipal Council. He has also been active in politics. Though he has been arrested in the past, we never thought he might be involved in such a crime. He was given a clean chit in all those cases and we hope he gets one in this case too.”

Superintendent of police, Ahmednagar, Raoshaheb Shinde said, “Our records show that Jagirdar has been a suspect in various crimes in the past. His involvement was suspected in  cases of assault, kidnapping, drug pushing and theft.”

Police sources from Ahmednagar said Jagirdar has been a suspect in two murders, one of which took place in Kandivli in 2000 and other was the killing of lawyer Ravindra Jain in Bhiwandi in 2002. He was arrested by the Malegaon police for leaking army secrets in 2009.