‘Pillai wants control of eastern suburbs’

The Kumar Pillai gang is trying to gain control of the eastern suburbs. The recent attacks on two builders in Vikhroli and Kanjur Marg hint at that, a senior police official said on condition of anonymity.

On Monday evening, Sanjeeth Shetty alias Lafda, a member of the Pillai gang, barged into the office of Laxmi Corporation, owned by builder Ramesh Shah, in Vikhroli. Employees of the firm said that the goon drew his gun, but could not fire as it got jammed. He broke some window panes with the butt of his revolver and fled the spot. Shah told the cops that he had received extortion calls from Pillai about two weeks before the incident.

On Tuesday evening, Sanjeeth turned up at the office of Lodha builders in Kanjur Marg and fired four rounds. He targeted no one in particular, but before leaving the spot, he handed over a piece of paper to the watchman. It had Pillai’s name and phone number written on it.

Pillai’s gang has always been active in areas like Bhandup, Kanjur Marg and Vikhroli, where lots of new constructions are coming up. Pillai’s father, Krishna Pillai, had been involved in smuggling activities along the Bhandup creek. Krishna was murdered by Lal Singh Chavan, a politician.

Pillai, who studied chemical engineering, took up crime to avenge the killing of his father. He got in touch with Ashwin Naik, who too was a chemical engineer. Together they joined the Amar Naik gang in the late eighties. Pillai was given the charge of weapons dealings and narcotics smuggling.

In the early nineties, after the death of Amar and the arrest of Ashwin, the gang started breaking up. Pillai allegedly fled to a South East Asian country, and began forming his own gang in the mid-nineties. He made the recruitments through close relatives in Mumbai. His gang has been involved in several cases of extortion and murder.