Police investigations into the torching of a Shiv Sena shakha in Bhandup earlier this week indicate that the attack was carried out at the behest of gangster Bunty Pandey.
Police investigations into the torching of a Shiv Sena shakha in Bhandup earlier this week indicate that the attack was carried out at the behest of gangster Bunty Pandey. This came to the fore after the arrest of six people, including a lawyer Avinash Rasal, 59, a resident of Khar.
The police found out that Rasal had thought of floating his own political party, called the Rashtriya Sena. And his party line was clear: Pro-North-Indian interest and against the high-handedness of the Shiv Sena and Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS), said police.
“Rasal seems to have close relations with Pandey. In fact, it’s possible that Pandey is funding his yet-to-be launched political party and is dictating terms and ideating for it,” said RM Vhatkar, deputy commissioner of police.
Preliminary investigations by the Bhandup police, which arrested the group on Thursday, revealed that Rasal allegedly owed allegiance to the Pandey gang and had even represented him as a defence lawyer in a couple of cases. During interrogation, he reportedly confessed about his close links with Pandey.
The others arrested are Lala Kagda, 21, Manikumar Vincent, 28, Santosh alias Satya Dilip Ingle, 19, Gautam More, 22, Murugesh alias Murugan Kuppuswami, 35. Rasal has been remanded in judicial custody and the other two in police custody till November 10.
Police said Kagda and Vincent, residents of Bhandup, were promised a sum of Rs1lakh by Pandey if they burnt down the offices of the Sena and the MNS. However, they targeted only the Sena office after which they were picked up by the police.
Pandey used to be a henchman for fugitive underworld don Chhota Rajan until he parted ways to make his own gang. He also allegedly attempted to extort Rs2 crore from Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan after the release of film Om Shanti Om. He is believed to have fled the country in 2005 and operating his own gang through extortion and dacoities.
The police are trying to establish if the fire incident was a hate-crime and if those arrested were in touch with Pandey. “We are interrogating them to find out if they were brain-washed to commit the crime,” said a police official.
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