Attack on Sewree man: Prime accused arrested

Sources said the target in Thane was a man who had been on the hitlist of a local gang.

The Mumbai Police Crime Branch on Monday arrested one Anil Rambade (28), the main accused in the attack on Sewree resident Pramod Kamtekar.

Rambade has a long list of cases against him since 2006, including one on an alleged attack on Vaibhav Naik, MLA from Kankavli, in 2009, police said. They are exploring the possibility of invoking the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act against Rambade. Kamtekar, who runs a printing press, was returning home from work on April on his motorbike when he was shot at. He was in hospital for a long time but survived the attack. The police later arrested two people but the prime accused was at large.

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On Monday, officials of Crime Branch Unit III received a tip-off that the main accused, identified as Rambade, would be at Dream Mall on LBS Road in Bhandup. The police laid a trap and took Rambade into custody. A search of his residence yielded six handguns, four of them of superior quality, and 19 live rounds, the police said. “After the crime, the accused travelled to various parts of the state, never staying in the same spot for more than a few days. On April 15, four days after the firing in Sewree, the accused also attempted to attack a Thane resident in a similar fashion, but the attack failed. He was also planning to attack an old rival of his, in Bhandup in next few days,” said Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime) Atulchandra Kulkarni.

Sources said the target in Thane was a man who had been on the hitlist of a local gang. Rambade took the contract to kill him in order to ‘strengthen his reputation as a gangster’.

mumbai.newsline@expressindia.com

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