5 aides of Central Mumbai gangster arrested
MUMBAI: The anti-extortion cell (AEC) on Friday arrested five members of the Guru Satam gang —known to have had a hold on Central Mumbai —after a real estate developer lodged a complaint against them.
Police officers said Satam’s gang has become active after a decade of a lull and he has been threatening private developers in Dadar and Parel.
In the past few months, Satam’s associates allegedly extorted ransom from four real estate developers, sources in the crime branch said.
The five arrested members of Satam’s gang have been identified as Rajesh Ambre alias Bhai (involved in more than 50 cases of extortion, assault and attempt to murder), Amol Shankar Vichare, Bipin Balram Dhotre, Deepak Jayantilal Lodhiya alias Soni alias Rajesh, and Bharat Pradeep Solanki alias Anwar.
While Ambre is said to be Satam’s close aide, Vichare was involved in nine cases, including three murders. Active for over two decades, Vichare was also reportedly a henchman of gangster Suresh Manchekar and was involved in builder Mahendra Khanvilkar’s murder at Parel in 2000. He was convicted in the murder case and was awarded 10 years imprisonment. It was only last year that he was released from jail after having served his sentence.
Solanki had visited the complainant’s site in central Mumbai and threatened him to pay ransom or face dire consequences.
“During the inquiry, we learnt that the accused were threatening four private developers in the city but only one had come forward to lodge a complaint,” said deputy commissioner of police, Dilip Sawant of the Mumbai crime branch.
The complainant had earlier paid around ₹60 lakh to Guru Satam in the last four years.