Pillai's gang has been instrumental carrying out a series of criminal offences in the eastern suburbs of Mumbai. The police had also slapped Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act charges against the gang in two cases.
A fingerprint sample taken at the time of gangster Kumar Pillai's arrest in 1990 proved to be the biggest weapon for city police to establish Pillai's identity, who was caught by the authorities in Singapore last month.
According to the police, on September 14, 1990, Pillai was arrested by Vikhroli police in an assault case. His fingerprint sample was then taken for police records. Pillai fled the country in 1995 and since then he has been pulling the strings of his gang from overseas.
Pillai's gang has been instrumental carrying out a series of criminal offences in the eastern suburbs of Mumbai. The police had also slapped Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act charges against the gang in two cases.
"We had received information that Pillai was caught in Singapore by the authorities there. We then got Pillai's fingerprint sample from our records and through diplomatic channels shared this clinching evidence with Singaporean authorities. This helped in establishing his identity," said a police officer.
The police sources said that Pillai could be extradited to Mumbai in a month's time, once the official procedures are completed.
Kumar Pillai's father Krushna Pillai, a resident of Bhandup, was involved in smuggling activities at the Bhandup creek. Krushna Pillai was was killed by Dawood's man Suhas Makdawala, allegedly at the behest of politician Lal Singh Chavan.
To avenge his father's murder, Kumar got into criminal activities.
Pillai, who studied chemical engineering as a youngster, got in touch with Ashwin Naik, who was an engineer, and joined the Amar Naik gang in late eighties. He had contacts in Southern India and specialised in weapon dealings and narcotics smuggling for the gang.
It was in the early nineties after the death of Amar Naik and arrest of Ashwin Naik, the gang started declining. Pillai allegedly fled to a South-East Asian country and then started creating his own gang in the mid-nineties.
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