Cops smell surrender in Naik8217;s arrest

August 6: Was Ashwin Naik nabbed by an alert police force? Or did one of the shrewdest criminal brains in the country actually surrender?...

August 6: Was Ashwin Naik nabbed by an alert police force? Or did one of the shrewdest criminal brains in the country actually surrender? Naik8217;s arrest on Thursday reads like a whodunnit gone wrong for the ganglord. But senior police officers in the know about Naik8217;s famed intelligence say it is unlikely that he could have been trapped so easily on the border of West Bengal. Read: the dreaded gangster actually surrendered.

Concurred an Assistant Commissioner of Police, 8220;Although the details are yet to come in, we do not rule out surrender.8221; Naik was allegedly arrested by the 24 Parganas police as he attempted to cross over to Bangladesh on Thursday morning. Naik being arrested with forged papers, and en route to one of the most impoverished nations in the world, that too by road is puzzling, say officers. Naik, who has been ducking Mumbai police and some of the best enforcement agencies in the country, even travelling to Canada and London with impunity, could have easily travelled by air, pointed out apolice officer from the crime branch.

Privately, the theory doing the rounds of the top police echelons is Naik is here to honour8217; Deputy Chief Minister Gopinath Munde8217;s declaration that he would bring underworld dons like Dawood Ibrahim to book, revealed a senior police officer. Naik8217;s wife Neeta is a sitting Shiv Sena corporator at the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation. Another theory is that Naik, who was paralysed waist-down in a shootout by a Gawli gangster in 1995, needed to get a vital operation done at a Mumbai hospital. The operation could enable Naik, who is now on callipers, to walk again.

Police said Naik will be brought to Mumbai only after the Delhi police have wrapped up their end of investigations. 8220;Only after the Delhi police are through with Naik can we send a team and arrest him for cases registered here. It could be more than a week before we get an transfer arrest warrant against him,8221; Deputy Commissioner of Police, detection, Sunil Paraskar, told Express Newsline.

Unlikehis contemporaries Dawood Ibrahim and Chhota Rajan, whose bases are restricted to Pakistan and Malaysia, Naik has managed to spread his wings to Toronto, London and Singapore. His gang is said to be the most affluent, well-connected and well-equipped in the city. His entry into the Mumbai underworld after his brother Amar Naik was killed in a police encounter in August 1996 is said to have sparked off a trend of precision planning and and deadly killings. The bold killing of Tanya Koli in a local train at Kalyan in 1995 as he was escorted back to the Adharwadi jail by the police after a court hearing is one such example. But Naik could only be charged with conspiracy in the case.

Naik was charged for the murder of Kaliyamani at Vikhroli in 1994 and was later arrested under Terrorist and Disruptive Activities Act TADA. He was released on medical grounds on December 6, 1995. But the wily Naik made good his escape, and travelling in a hearse to Pune and then to Delhi by car, managed to reach Kathmandu. Evenbefore the cops can reach there, Naik was safely ensconced in Canada.

Even while on the run, Naik kept visiting Mumbai incognito, and even ordered several hits, said sources. According to the crime branch dossiers, Naik is wanted in the killings of Akhil Bhartiya Sena ABS treasurer Ramdas Ambaokar in August 1997, ABS member Narayan Bhidye and owners of Madras Cafe at Bhandup Haridas and Krishan Kurup.

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Surrender or no surrender, the police believe that Naik8217;s arrest has rung a death-knell for the gang. 8220;His gang is almost finished now,8221;said DCP Paraskar.