Dacoity charge against Mankar,accomplices

Mankar is still at large. The Crime Branch is apparently compiling the details of his land mafia activities.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (Crime) Anil Kumbhare confirmed that the section for dacoity has been invoked against Mankar in the case registered by Natu at Khadak police station. Natu filed the complaint on Friday,which says that the accused had entered his residence in Shukrawar Peth on March 7,2008,and stole 20 ancestral vessels and a cupboard containing silver vessels,together worth Rs 6.5 lakh. It also says that the accused came to Natu’s Shukrawar Peth residence on February 2,2008,when builder Sudheer Karnataki allegedly threatened Natu that he would take control of the house if Natu approached the police or court. Goons then razed two rooms in the verandah of Natu’s house,it adds.

On Saturday,a Crime Branch team, comprising Deputy Commissioner Kumbhare and Assistant Commissioner Sangramsingh Nishandar,visited the crime scene. “Most of the goons who entered Natu’s house were associated with Datta Sagare,a former corporator. We have identified some of them from the photographs that Natu managed to click during the incident. We have four more complaints against Mankar and will be booking him in one more land grab case,” Kumbhare said.

The Crime Branch has also initiated the process to cancel the arms licences of Mankar and builder Karnataki. The police said Mankar had obtained a gun licence from Pune rural police,on his residence address at Sangrun in Haveli taluka.

The police have got details of financial transactions between builder Karnataki and Sadhana Vartak,Mankar’s aide. “We suspect that Vartak was handling the finances of Mankar’s land deals even as Mankar was getting properties vacated and acquiring them for Karnataki,” a Crime Branch officer said.

The police have obtained bank transaction records showing that Karnataki had given lakhs of rupees to Vartak since 2004. They said Vartak received Rs 10 lakh from Karnataki on February 4,2008,just two days before the accused had threatened the Natu family.