The Anti-Organised Crime Cell (North) of the Crime Branch has arrested two notorious criminals, Asif Iqbal Sheikh and his accomplice Nitin Shrikant Surve, better known as Asif Dadhi and RDX respectively in the underworld
The Anti-Organised Crime Cell (North) of the Crime Branch has arrested two notorious criminals, Asif Iqbal Sheikh and his accomplice Nitin Shrikant Surve, better known as Asif Dadhi and RDX respectively in the underworld.
According to sources in the Crime Branch, Dadhi, who is associated with the Meghanath Shetty gang, was extorting money using underworld don Dawood Ibrahim's name.
The police said Dadhi was a resident of A-24, MIDC, Pimpri. They said RDX, a resident of Upper Indira Nagar, was a native of Chiplun in Ratnagiri district.
Acting on a tip-off, a team led by Police Inspector Satish Govekar laid a trap near Ambedkar Chowk in Pimpri and arrested the two criminals. The team also recovered two firearms from them, a country-made revolver and a crude pistol, along with four live rounds.
"Sheikh and Surve were co-accused in a case in 2007," said Additional Commissioner of Police (Crime) Anant Shinde.
On whether Sheikh was actually associated with the Dawood gang or just using the dreaded don's name to serve his purposes, he said, "This information has been brought to my notice, but nothing can be said at this moment, we are investigating the matter."
SIMI member?
According to the police, Dadhi got his nickname because of the thick beard he sported and that he was a suspected member of the banned organisation Students' of Islamic Movement of India (SIMI).
They said the member of the Meghnath Shetty gang had several serious offenses registered against him, including abduction, body offenses, murder, and attempt to murder in various police stations in the city. The police said Dadhi was in the process of establishing his supremacy over other gang members.
Sources in the Crime Branch said Dadhi was considering to be one of the brains behind the gang. An engineering student from a college in the east of the city, he was running a fitness equipment-manufacturing unit in MIDC. The sources said he came in contact with Shetty's son during his college days and defended the gang in its tussle against the Baba Bhosale gang in the 1990s.
They said RDX, a sharp shooter associated with Dadhi, was absconding since 2005 and was considered the taskmaster of the gang. He allegedly went underground after the court of JMFC M S Phansalkar-Joshi awarded him life imprisonment in connection with the murder of a person called Navnath Vadkar and his accomplice at Janata Vasahat in Parvati in 2002.
Kidnap and murder
According to the police, Dadhi and RDX were the co-accused in the abduction of a person called Nazir Sayyed of Bhimpura in Camp. They said the two later shot the kidnapped man dead and disposed of the body at an isolated spot at Tamhini Ghat. The case was registered at the Hadapsar police station in 2007. Both were absconding since then.
After PI Govekar received a tip-off that both would be approaching the Ambedkar Chowk on Saturday evening, he took a team of policemen with him to the spot and arrested the two. The police team included Satish Kamble, Nasir Patel, Police Constable Arun Budhkar, Popat Gaikwad, Vilas Palande and Gunny Sayyed.
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