5 Rajan men arrested

The three policemen immediately informed their superiors, and a squad reached the spot in minutes and laid a trap. The three were arrested and identified as Joseph D8217;souza alias Joe, Kisan Kherade and Ankush Kapkar. They were found in possession of a .38 revolver, three live rounds and two choppers.

During interrogation, the gangters revealed the names of two other associates, who were arrested late in the evening. The two others were identified as Kiraman More and Santosh Rane.

The gangsters during interrogation told police they haddemanded a huge sum as extortion money from Bharthi Marbel Industries near Santacruz airport and Oswal Travels at Vile Parle. They had also issued threats to Thakur Builders at Thane and Akruti Builders at Andheri, said sub-inspector Vilas Gangwane.

Joe had earlier been arrested in connection with the murder of East West Airways managing director Takkiuddin Wahid at Bandra in 1995. Besides, he is named in at least a dozen cases related to murder, attempt to murder, extortion, etc.

Police believe the gang was very active in the western suburbs and demanded Rs 20 to Rs 50 lakh from its victims.

Other members of the police squad were senior inspector Ambadas Pote, Sunil Deshmukh, Arjun Bagdi, API Raju Pillai, Rajan Ghule and M G Kale.

ONE HELD FOR DUPING JOB-SEEKERS: The crime branch has arrested a fraud, Arif Khan, who allegedly duped hundreds of job-seekers and seized 181 passports from his office on Thursday.

According to officers of the general branch, which is a unit of the EconomicOffences Wing, Khan had promised lucrative jobs to hundreds of people in the Middle-East and charged each of them over Rs 25,000 as remuneration for their employment.

According to assistant police inspector Pradeep Kale, Khan8217;s modus operandi was similar to the established routine of manpower consultants who get jobs for people abroad. In March this year, Khan released an advertisment in many newspapers about job opportunities in the Gulf, including in a seven-star hotel in Dubai. After the ad appeared, scores of people made a beeline for jobs outside his office at Vile Parle.

Khan conducted interviews of the job aspirants on March 9 and promised jobs to everybody. Khan asked them to deposit their passports with him and assured them they could fly on May 28. However, until May 28, the job-seekers neither got any airline tickets nor their passports stamped with visas nor their money back.

When they went to his office, they realised that in all he had defrauded them all for over Rs 25 lakh. In themeanwhile, Khan himself had escaped to Ahmedabad. However, when he returned to the city last week, police laid a trap and arrested him.

Police also raided his office premises, Royal Associates, near Shan Cinema at Vile Parle and arrested two of his associates, Abdul Aziz and Arman Vyapari. Police also managed to recover passports of over 181 persons from his office. While Khan has been arrested under Section 420 of IPC, his associates have been held under the Immigration Act.

COPS CRACK MURDER CASE WITH HELP OF CITIZEN: Mumbai police managed to solve a murder case recently because of help from an alert citizen.

On June 13, police had found the dead body of a taxi driver, Vinod Shukla. A Sewree resident, Shukla8217;s taxi was waylaid while on way to Mulund and he was dragged out of the cab. The then unidentified assailants had strangulated Shukla, dumped his corpse in the gutter and decamped with the taxi.

On August 12, police received an anonymous tip-off that the killers were hiding in theVikhroli Parksite area. The Park Site police arrested six accused. The killers were identified as Nancy D Souza, Sakruddin Khan, Sudhir Manwar, Shravan Shinde, Ajay Yadav and Sanjay Khairnar. Police have also recovered Shukla8217;s taxi from the accused.