Cops arrest Arun Gawli gang member after 24 years

After evading the police for 24 years, a gangster from the Arun Gawli gang was arrested by NM Joshi Marg police from Raigad.

According to the police officials, the accused, identified as Uttam Pandurang Pansare, and was arrested from his native district — Raigad — on Thursday, where he had taken up farming for a living.

In 1992, the accused, along with two others had attacked two members of a rival group, where one Gopinath Jadhav died while another man, Mangesh Mahadankar, somehow managed to survive. Following this, a case was registered under relevant sections of murder, attempt to murder under Indian penal Code and Arms act.

An officer from NM Joshi Marg police station said, “The NM Joshi police had then had arrested Sandesh Nikum while the other accused, Pansare and Anil Shinde, managed to escape. However Pansare has been arrested now, and the other accused (Shinde), sources say, is dead. He had drowned.”

Shinde was in touch with Gawli, while the other two worked under him. So immediately after attacking the members of the gang run by Babya Khopde, the three accused escaped, but Nikum got arrested. Shinde stopped contacting the other two after the incident and fled with the money that Gawli had given him for the attack.

“Shinde took all the money and escaped. He spread the word that he had died due to drowning as he didn’t want to give the other two their share,” added an officer.

Pansare escaped to Surat, changed his identity and started working as a waiter. Till 2008, he worked in Surat as a waiter, grew a moustache and beard to hide his identity. He later shifted to Raigad and got into farming. Pansare assumed that the police would have forgotten about him since the filing of the charge sheet, so he went to Mangaon in Raigad district and started living there.

“The accused had become a farmer in Mangaon and was staying with his family,” said an officer. However, one of the informers spotted him and tipped off the police, which led to his arrest.

Past cases:

March 13, 2016: The Mumbai Police Crime Branch traced and arrested 53-year-old Nadeem Gulab Rasool Mistry, allegedly involved in a 1990 murder case, who had managed to evade the police for two decades. The accused, at the time, worked as an associate of a local gangster, Mangesh Pawar, who in turn, was Dawood Ibrahim’s aide. He was arrested from Vadodara, Gujarat.

Feb 2015: Shyam Kishor Garikapatti, a henchmen of Dawood, was arrested in February 2015 by the Goa police. Garikapatti, who was convicted in the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts, was caught with firearms and has been booked under the Indian Arms Act. He was arrested from a rented house in the Saligao village, about 10km from Panaji.

Who is Gawli

Arun Gawli, also known as the Robin Hood of Dagdi Chawl, joined Rama Naik’s gang and was soon entrusted with the responsibility of Dawood Ibrahim’s consignments. Soon, he gave up his job and joined the Amar Naik gang. After a fallout between Rama Naik and Dawood over a plot of land at Jogeshwari, in which Rama Naik got killed, Gawli become Dawood’s arch enemy. Even his brother, Bappa Gawli was murdered. To avenge the killing, Gawli killed Dawood’s brother-in-law Ibrahim Parkar in the early 1990s. Later after his arrest, he even contested the Assembly elections and was even elected as an MLA.

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