The accused were produced in a local court on Tuesday and have been remanded in the custody of the Kurar police till May 14.
Days after Sena leader Sachin Sawant (46) was shot dead by two assailants in Malad's Gokul Nagar, the Kurar police arrested seven persons on Monday for involvement in the murder. Police said that a rivalry over the SRA project led to the murder of the local Sena leader and it was planned by one of the accused Brijesh Patel, who was eyeing the project on which Sawant was working.
The accused were produced in a local court on Tuesday and have been remanded in the custody of the Kurar police till May 14. They have been identified as Lokesh Singh, Abhay Patil, Sonu Pal, Amit Singh, and Brijesh Singh, who are contract killers. The other two are Brijesh Patel and Nilesh Sharma. While Patel was residing in the same area as Sawant, Sharma used to work with the slain leader, and had professional differences.
While one of them was arrested from Malad, the other six persons were nabbed from Uttar Pradesh,
According to police, due to the dispute over the SRA project in Gokul Nagar, Patel wanted to sideline Sawant. So, he hatched a plan along with Sharma. The latter was seeking revenge for the monetary disputes he had with Sawant and for the several occasions when he had been insulted.
The duo hired contract killers from Nalasopara to eliminate Sawant and promised them Rs 10 lakh and houses in Nalasopara and Virar as well as some employment at the SRA project.
Subsequently, several meetings were held between the accused to plan the murder and an advance amount of Rs 1 lakh was paid to the killers.
"The contract killers made a recce of the locations in Gokul Nagar and on the night of April 22, when Sawant was killed, Lokesh and Abhay waited at the by-lanes, while the others waited at the main road for back up. As Sawant approached in a bike, the killers called out to him and fired six rounds at him. Out of them, four were misfired, and two were pumped into Sawant's chest. "The accused immediately fled from the spot and left the city. They were hiding in their hometown in Uttar Pradesh. We got the first clue after we took the statement of the person who was riding pillion during the firing. We then made sketches of the accused and traced them in UP," said a police officer.
"The conspiracy to kill Sawant was hatched after the declaration of an SRA project bid on April 11, following which there was a heated argument between Sharma and Sawant, " said Rajesh Pradhan, Additional Commissioner of Police (North Region).
ROGUE'S GALLERY
They accused have been identified as contract killers Lokesh Singh, Abhay Patil, Sonu Pal, Amit Singh and Brijesh Singh. Cops say the murder was planned by Brijesh Patel who was eyeing a project Sachin Sawant was working on.
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