Crime branch arrests five for attack on Ghansoli corporator

KOPAR KHAIRANE: Less than 12 hours after Nationalist Congress Party corporator from Ghansoli, Sanjay Patil, was attacked on Thursday night, the Navi Mumbai crime branch arrested five people on Friday. The police said that the attack was owing to a dispute regarding the supply of building material.

Patil was attacked at 9.30pm on Ghansoli Palm Beach road near Rajendra Ashram chowk, when he was heading from Kopar Khairane to Ghansoli on a bike with his uncle Sudhir Patil.

According to police, the bike the duo was travelling on was hit by a Swift Dzire. Following this, the duo fell off and one of the attackers tried shooting at Sanjay. When he failed to do so, Sanjay was attacked with choppers during which his finger was cut among other injuries on his left wrist and head. The culprits had then escaped in the Swift car and a Scorpio which was always present at the spot.

Based on information from the injured, the Kopar Khairane police registered a case against Ajay Patil, a resident of Ghansoli, for engineering the attack and arrested Dilip Satpute, 30, a Kopar Khairane resident. Following Satpute’s interrogation, the crime branch officials headed to Pune and traced Ajay, 29, along with the other accused Ashok Gunjal, 21, Nitin Kodhalkar, 23, and Sumit Kamble, 23, all Pune residents. All five were subsequently arrested.

According to deputy commissioner of police (crime) Shrikant Pathak, “The accused, barring Satpute, fled to Pune immediately after the incident after abandoning the vehicles. The accused have all confessed to the crime.”

“Ajay had a dispute with Sanjay over a building material supply issue. Last year, he also started dealing in plots,” said Pathak.

The accused will be presented in the court on Saturday.

Sanjay, who is reported to be out of danger was shifted from Sai Snehdeep hospital in Kopar Khairane, where he underwent an operation to join his little finger and for other injuries, to Bombay Hospital in Mumbai. Sudhir is being treated at MGM hospital in Vashi.

Ghansoli node observed a bandh on Friday in protest against the attack on the corporator.

BACHCHAN KUMAR On Thursday, NCP corporator Sanjay Patil was attacked with a chopper by a gang of five men (right).