Continuing its crackdown on the dreaded Andekar gang, the Pune City police have now booked its leader, Suryakant alias Bandu Andekar, and his aides in a land-grabbing and extortion case. A 51-year-old businessman lodged the First Information Report (FIR) in this case at the Samarth police station on September 30. As per the FIR, the businessman, a resident of Bhavani Peth, and his family own a 12,500 sq ft ancestral property in Nana Peth. In 2017, Andekar allegedly encroached upon approximately 3,500 sq ft of the property and constructed a three-storey building at the site, comprising 12 rooms and two halls, with water and electricity connections. According to the FIR, Andekar rented the rooms and the halls out for various functions and illegally earned about Rs 5.4 crore. In the FIR, the businessman said he requested Andekar to vacate the property, saying he wanted to develop it. However, Andekar and his aide, Manish alias Manoj Chandrakant Wardekar, allegedly demanded Rs 1.8 crore from him. They also allegedly threatened to kill the businessman if he did not comply. Scared, he did not file a police complaint. Meanwhile, the police intensified action against the Andekar gang after the murder of 18-year-old Ayush Komkar last month and issued an appeal, urging people to come forward and file complaints against the Andekars. This prompted the businessman to lodge the FIR. Ayush was allegedly shot multiple times by two gunmen in the parking lot of his residential building in Bhavani Peth on September 5, in what is suspected to be revenge for the murder of former Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) corporator Vanraj Andekar, Bandu Andekar’s son, in September last year. Ayush was the son of Bandu’s daughter Kalyani Komkar, whose husband Ganesh Komkar is a prime accused in Vanraj’s murder. The police have so far arrested 16 people, including Bandu, nine people from his family, and other gang members in the Ayush Komkar murder case. The police have also demolished several illegal structures owned by the Andekar gang in Pune.
