13 December,2014 07:35 AM IST | | Vinay Dalvi
Prakash alias Bunty Pandey, who faces around 34 cases in Mumbai, was sentenced by the MCOCA court and fined Rs 31.5 lakh
A special Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) court on Friday awarded life imprisonment to extradited gangster Prakash, alias Bunty Pandey, and fined him Rs 31.5 lakh. Pandey, who was deported from Vietnam, faces around 34 cases in the city, including murder and attempt to murder.
The Special MCOCA judge of Arthur Road court, Anil Phansare, awarded the life-term to Pandey, who was deported to India in 2010 with the help of Interpol by the Mumbai Crime branch. Pandey was sentenced in a case of firing at hotel Shiv Sagar at Marine Drive in 2009, where a security guard, Narayan Pujari, was killed. Pandey's men had opened fire at the hotel.
Cop speak
"The case was handed to the Crime Branch and under the supervision of ACP Ashok Durafe, we carried out the investigations and have finally managed to get life for Pandey," said police inspector Dheeraj Koli of Central Intelligence unit of Mumbai Crime Branch.
The family members of the security guard are yet to be traced but the judge has set aside Rs 5 lakh for them, which will be taken from the fine. Pandey used to earlier work for Chhota Rajan but when Rajan was attacked in Bangkok by Chhota Shakeel aides he joined Shakeel, and later went on to form his own gang.
Pandey was first in the news in 1995 when, with the help of Chhota Rajan, he shot dead Thakiyudeen Wahid, managing director of East West Airlines. Pandey used to smuggle liquor in Uttarkhand and in jail came in contact with Chhota Rajan aide O P Singh, with whose help he entered the underworld and fled the country in 2000. He had also called several film stars like Shah Rukh Khan for extortion.
