Gangster Ganesh Marne travelled five states after Sharad Mohol’s murder; gets police custody till Feb 9

Police arrested Marne, resident of Karve Nagar, on Wednesday for his alleged role in Sharad Mohol’s murder. Marne is the 16th arrest in this case lodged at the Kothrud police station. He was produced before a special court in Pune on Thursday. Special judge V R Kachare remanded Marne to police custody till February 9 for further investigation.

Assistant Commissioner of Police (crime) Sunil Tambe told the court that Marne and co-accused Vitthal Mahadev Shelar are the prime conspirators of Sharad Mohol’s murder. Tambe sought Marne’s police custody for 14 days, saying it was essential to confront him with 15 other accused persons earlier arrested in this case.

Police have invoked the stringent Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) in this case. As per the provisions of MCOCA, police would be producing the 15 other accused in this case before the court on Friday to seek their custody again for their confrontation with Marne.

ACP Tamble told the court that Marne went to different locations like Hyderabad, Odisha, Kerala, Bengaluru, Tulajpur, Solapur, Nipani, Gujrat after the murder. “Statements of witnesses in this regard are being recorded,” Tambe said. Meanwhile, Tambe also submitted a “confidential report” in connection with the Sharad Mohol murder case before the court.

Tambe told the court that Mohol’s wife Swati has in her supplementary statement mentioned about threat to their life from Ganesh Marne and Vitthal Shelar. Tambe also submitted that as mentioned in the FIR, the assailants who opened fire at Sharad Mohol said they are associated with Ganesh Marne.

Prosecution lawyer Pramod Bombatkar said Ganesh Marne was booked in eight crimes in the past and was having previous enmity with Sharad Mohol.

Marne’s lawyer Rahul Deshmuk claimed that CCTV footage of Sharad Mohol murder, which went ,”CCTV footage of Sharad Mohol murder is available with clear audio and it went viral through television channels. It is clear from the video that assailants did not even whisper Ganesh Marne’s name during the incident”

“All cases against him (Marne) are prior to 2008. Thereafter, no cognizable offence was lodged against him. So eight cases in the past cannot be considered as criminal antecedents. The confidential report police have submitted is not known to us…..Just for the purpose of interrogation, a maximum of two days police custody is sufficient,” said Deshmukh.

It may be recalled that Ganesh Marne was in the past arrested for the sensational murder of gangster Sandip Mohol on Paud road on October 4, 2006. After his arrest, his aide Kishor Marne took charge of his gang. It is alleged that to take revenge for Sandip’s murder, Sharad Mohol and his aides shot dead Kishor on January 11, 2010. Police said Ganesh Marne was since then seen as a rival to Sharad Mohol, who was even convicted by a court for Kishor’s murder, but later got bail from high court.

Meanwhile, within eight hours after Sharad Mohol’s murder, the police had arrested eight persons including two lawyers as well as the assailant Polekar who shot at him from the back side. During searches, police recovered three country-made pistols, three magazines, five live cartridges and eight cell phones from their possession. Police further arrested seven persons including Vitthal Shelar (36), a resident of Urawade village in Mulshi.

Police suspect Shelar and Marne hatched the conspiracy to kill Mohol. Police said some accused procured pistols from Madhya Pradesh for committing the murder and practised firing in the Mulshi area on at least two occasions. Police suspect that Polekar and his uncle Namdev Kamgude were having a previous dispute with Mohol over money and land dealing. So police believe that Polekar started working for Mohol as a part of the conspiracy to kill him.