The Mumbai crime branch arrested a member of fugitive Ravi Pujari’s gang on Wednesday from Chembur.
Kailash Pradhan, 44, was working as a “manager” in the gang and was providing money, and weapons to shooters for the gang’s operations in Mumbai, Thane and Navi Mumbai, crime branch sources said. He was in direct contact with Ravi Pujari and Suresh Pujari, who are believed to be operating from Dubai.
Most importantly, sources claimed that Pradhan was part of operations in which two big builders from Mumbai and Thane, and an NCP corporator from Ambernath were to be gunned down (The Asian Age reported on April 11 and April 12). The anti-robbery squad of the Mumbai crime branch then foiled these operations by arresting one Nitin Avghadekar in April and seized a 7.65 mm pistol and six live rounds from him. The police suspects that Pradhan is the same person who was the unidentified wanted accused in the case.
Pradhan, who is originally from Orissa, lives in Ambernath. He was arrested near Amardham crematorium by Unit-6 crime branch team headed by senior PI Shripad Kale, PI Bharat Jadhav and other policemen following a tip-off. Two foreign made pistols and 10 live rounds were recovered from him, which he was supposed to give to a shooter for an operation. Pradhan was given responsibility to provide phone numbers of rich people, including builders, to Pujari.
“As he is a carpenter, he used to get contracts for making furniture for under-construction buildings. He used to take the numbers of persons concerned in the builders’ offices and pass it on to the Pujari gang,” said an officer on condition of anonymity.
“Once the target was set by Pujari, Pradhan would provide money, weapons to the shooters. He used to get `20,000 to `25,000 by Pujari for the work,” said PI Bharat Jadhav of Unit-6.