Ganglord Santosh Shetty would have never imagined that his most trusted aide’s disclosures to the crime branch would have led to his deportation.
Bangkok-based Shetty’s aide Bhadresh Shah spilled the beans regarding Shetty’s whereabouts in February.
Shah was arrested by the crime branch while he was coming from Bangkok in February. “Shah’s association with Shetty goes back to the early 90s, when Shah ran into major business losses,” said a senior crime branch official, adding, “Bhadresh Shah and Santosh Shetty’s fathers were friends. So, Santosh’s father told Bhadresh’s father that his son was based in Dubai and convinced him to aslo send Bhadresh there.” Bhadresh then went to Dubai and met Santosh and it was from there that their association began.
Bhardesh then came back to Mumbai and later even Santosh returned to the city. Santosh was then arrested and booked for a narcotic case. During this period Bhadresh used to help Santosh with his case.
“However after jumping parole, Santosh fled to Bangkok and for some years Bhadresh lost touch with him. Then in around 2002, Bhadresh got in touch with Santosh and told him to come to Bangkok,” said the official. Bhadresh, according to the crime branch, began actively participating in Santosh’s extortion racket. Bhadresh would identify victims and give Santosh the details. Santosh would then proceed to demand a ransom from that person,” said another well-placed source in the crime branch.
In 2009, Bhadresh went to Rajasthan, kidnapped the son of a marble dealer and even took the victim to Bangkok. Once there, Santosh demanded a ransom of `5 crores. “The marble dealer apparently paid `1 crore and his son was let-off. The Mumbai crime branch was investigating the case as Bhadresh had flown along with the victim,” said the source.
Then in February 2011, Bhadresh was arrested by the crime branch from the Mumbai airport, while returning from Bangkok. During his interrogation, he gave the crime branch details of where Santosh lived, which passport he used to travel on and other minute details. “On the basis of this information we prepared a dossier and initiated the procedure to get Santosh deported,” said the source. Shah is currently in Ahmedabad Jail, as there is a case against him there and another in Rajasthan.