Mumbai firing and Rs 47 lakh gold theft case Main accused held after a year from Raigad

Mumbai, Jan 9 (PTI) The main accused in a sensational case involving theft of gold worth Rs 47.27 lakh and firing in south Mumbai last year has been arrested from Neral in Raigad district, a police official said on Friday.
The probe of over a year reached its conclusion after police first zeroed in on the main accused's house in Ulhasnagar in Thane district and then worked on a tip off that he was prone to visiting paan stalls for his 'supari' (betel nut) addiction, the official added.
On January 6 last year, 36-year-old Chirag Dhandukiya and his nephew were on a scooter carrying gold worth Rs 47.27 lakh when they were intercepted by four persons, the official said.
"They shot two rounds, leaving Dhandukiya's nephew injured. The accused fled with the gold the victims were carrying. Examination of the CCTV footage from the area led to the arrest of four persons by Mata Ramabai Ambedkar Marg police," he said.
The main accused, identified as Kailash Mathura Suryawanshi alias KP, a resident of Ulhasnagar in Thane, however, remained at large along with an associate. The police invoked the stringent MCOCA in the case after a probe found that Suryawanshi was a habitual criminal who formed new teams to carry out such acts, the official said.
"A tip off about Suryawanshi's habit of chewing supari and visiting a nearby paan stall prompted police to maintain a vigil, leading to his arrest on January 6 from Bajarpeth area of Neral. We recovered stolen gold worth Rs 12.91 lakh, as well as a pistol and five bullets from him," the official said.
Suryawanshi is involved in at least 35 serious offences registered at Mumbai, Thane, Navi Mumbai, Pune and Dhule, and he would evade arrest by changing his name and looks, said Deputy Commissioner of Police Pravin Mundhe.
He is also an accused in an earlier robbery case in which the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) was invoked, the official said.
The official said teams had gone to Delhi, Punjab, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh to nab Suryawnashi, before a tip off received by sub inspector Suraj Deore led to his arrest.
"After police got concrete information about his Ulhasnagar address, we showed his photograph to some paan stall owners there. While keeping a watch at one such stall, we got information that he was going to visit a doctor in Neral in Raigad. We nabbed him from there on January 6," the official said.

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)