Ashwin Naik arrested during attempt to enter Bangladesh

It was only during interrogation that the authorities realised that they had nabbed one of the most wanted gangsters of Mumbai8217;s underworld. Naik has been remanded to police custody for 13 days, sources confirmed.

Also arrested are five of his other associates who have been identified as Krushik Mullik, Arun Mukerjee, Sunil Biswas, Joy Singh alias Jai and Mahesh Sarang alias Rajput. Two senior police officers have left for Calcutta to bring Naik to Mumbai. However, he is likely to be taken to New Delhi where he faces charges relating to extortion, murder,kidnapping and smuggling in narcotics.

Ashwin, donned the leadership mantle of the Bapat gang after the death of his elder brother Amar, who was shot dead in an encounter with Assistant Police Inspector Vijay Salaskar and his team of officers at Agripada in 1997.Naik went underground in 1995 when he was shot at by Arun Gawli associate Ravi Sawant, who disguised himself as a lawyer. He was admitted to J J Hospital from where he managed to give police the slip. According to sources in Intelligence agencies, Naik escaped to Canada and thereafter to South Africa and Singapore in his bid to evade the long arm of the law. They believe his arrrest could lead to the busting of an international drug cartel, of which he was an important member.

Sources further added that during his stint at Singapore, he developed links with the LTTE cadre and expanded into large-scale smuggling of drugs. The Naik gang has its stronghold in the vegetable market at Dadar and a firm stranglehold over the flourishing diamond businessaround Opera House in south Mumbai. The gang is believed to have been extortiong more crores of rupees as protection money from traders.