Published On : Fri, May 27th, 2016

Cops raid notorious gambling den in Itwari, arrest 8 men; kingpin dodges net, again

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11002_1568073506806628_5535849833962536417_nNagpur: Following the footsteps of his predecessor, the newly appointed DCP of Zone 3 Sanjay Latkar on Friday ordered a raid on the notorious gambling den situated near Itwari Railway Station and arrested eight gamblers from the spot. A woman, who had provided logistic support to the gambling den, has also been arrested.

The raiding cops seized a huge cash, five vehicles, and other material collectively worth over 8 lakh. However, the kingpin of the gambling den Ashok alias Bawaji Champalal Yadav managed to escape the police net, again.

The then DCP of Zone 3 Abhinash Kumar too had raided the gambling den, run by the mastermind Ashok Bawaji, a couple of years ago. At that time also the kingpin had succeeded in evading the arrest. DCP Abhinash Kumar has now been transferred to newly created Zone 5.

The latest raid was an outcome of a well-planned operation. When the DCP Latkar was on patrol duty in the night of Thursday (May 26), he had called all the squad officers and policemen of the Zone to Shantinagar Police Station and had ordered them to raid the gambling den being run by the notorious criminal Ashok Bawaji near Itwari Railway Station. Subsequently, as ordered by the DCP Latkar, the patrolling squad raided the gambling den, being operated at a tarpaulin tent, behind Bastarwari School, in the dead of night (1.30 am) of Friday (May 27).

The raiding cops found the accused gamblers Narendra Manik Dhurve (47) of Prem Nagar, Manoj Gyanchand Jain (50) of Wardhaman Nagar, Mannalal alias Dani Ratanlal Yadav (42) of Lalganj Bastarwari, Lalbahadur Parambahadur Sahi (30) of Dhantoli Garden, Durgesh Dashrath Bokde (32) of Rani Durgawati Square, Akhilesh Sitaram Rai (60) of Rajnagar, Sadar, Chandu Giridhar Patil (32) of Trimurti Nagar, Ajni, and Nitin Suresh Nagarkar (38) of Azad Nagar, Sadar, busy in betting and playing cards. The accused gamblers were arrested. The cops seized huge cash, five vehicles, and other gambling material collectively worth Rs 8,05,820 from the arrested accused gamblers. The woman accused Sunita Sukhdeo Tiwari of Bastarwari who had provided lighting and other logistic support to the gambling tent, was also arrested.

All the arrested accused gamblers were booked under Sections 4, 5 of Bombay Prevention of Gambling Act. The woman accused Sunita Tiwari was booked under Section 109 of IPC. The notorious goon and mastermind of the gambling den Ashok alias Bawaji Champalal Yadav too was booked under the sections and is being hunted.

The raid action was carried out by APIs Sagar Nikam (Lakadganj), Bondse (Tehsil), PSI Borkute (Kotwali), ASI Ravi Rathod, constables Ajay Rode, Satish Pande, Deepak Karokar, Sathish Thakur, Bhushan Zade, Santosh Gupta under the directives of DCP Sanjay Latkar.

It is pertinent to recall, Nagpur Today had flashed a report titled “Police raid gambling den in Itwari, seize huge cash, arrest 28 men; masterminds escape net” wherein it was stated, ‘In a meticulously planned action, a special squad of policemen drawn from Detection Branch (DB) of Ambazari, Wadi, Sitabuldi Police Stations and headed by Police Inspector Anil Katkade raided a gambling den in Bastarwadi area near Itwari Railway Station on August 12, 2014. The squad arrested 28 gamblers from the spot and also seized Rs 6.12 lakh in cash and other material worth Rs 7.81 lakh from the den being run by Ashok Yadav alias Bawaji. However, Ashok Yadav and his accomplice Raju Kachhi could not be nabbed as both went absconding as soon as the den was raided. Significantly, policemen of Lakadganj Police Station, under whose jurisdiction the den was being run, were not included in the special squad.

The raid was carried out under the directives of DCP (Zone-1) Abhinash Kumar who had received a tip off on the gambling den. The DCP, maintaining secrecy over the operation, formed the special squad of policemen drawn from other police stations keeping the cops from Lakadganj at bay. Ambazari PI Anil Katkade was given responsibility to head the squad.