Nagpur: In a major development, the dreaded gangster Santosh Ambekar, who had gone underground after booked under the stringent MCOCA, reportedly surrendered to Sonegaon police here on Wednesday. The gangster was absconding since the past many days after the Crime Branch of Nagpur Police slapped the Maharashtra Control of Organized Crime Act (MCOCA) provision on him for his involvement in a flurry of criminal activities of serious nature. The Crime Branch sleuths had raided Ambekar’s house a few days back to net him but the gangster had succeeded in dodging the raiding cops. Nevertheless, the cops had seized vital documents and other stuff including a laptop and pen drives from his house. Notably, eleven members of Ambekar gang have been booked under MCOCA and most of them have been arrested. The latest crime the gang was involved pertained to an attempt to grab a house in Sonegaon area belonging to Swapnil Bidwai forcibly.
Even though the dispute over the property was between a builder Sachin Adulkar and Swapnil Bidwai over construction matter, the gangster Ambekar jumped in the ring. The builder Adulkar, resorting to threatening tactics, sought the help of Ambekar so that the property of crores could be grabbed rather easily. As the matter was worth crores, the gangster extended help to the builder Sachin.
The gangster Santosh Ambekar, hell bent on ‘capturing’ the house of Swapnil Bidwai, deployed his henchmen namely Yuvraj Mathankar, Gautam Bhatkar, Sanjay Fatode, Akash Borkar, Vinod Masram, Shakti Manpiya, Prakash Mankar, Vijay Borkar, Lokesh Kuhitkar and a few others for the task. The gang, subsequently, made an attempt to capture the house but in vain. In the meanwhile, the rage reached Sonegaon police and during the course of investigation, the role of Santosh Ambekar got exposed. Taking a serious view of the case, cops invoked the MCOCA provisions against the builder Sachin Adulkar, Santosh Ambekar and his gang of henchmen.
Feeling the heat of hot pursuit by Crime Branch sleuths, the gangster developed cold feet and surrendered in Sonegaon Police Station. He was immediately put under intense interrogation.
Later, DCP (Crime) Ranjan Sharma, DCP Zone-1 and ACP S Tore, the Investigating Officer addressed a press conference to throw more light on the surrender of Ambekar and other gang members.
The top cops said that the gangster slyly arrived in Nagpur from Mumbai by the train when he got information about the police raid on his house and the move by the cops to seize his house. Ambekar, even though went to Sonegaon Police Station at about 11 am to surrender, on record the surrender was shown at 5 pm as the paper formalities were completed at that time. Now, he will be produced in the court tomorrow (March 3) for further action. “Whoever assisted the gangster while he was absconding would be apprehended and action would be initiated against them,” said the top cops.
“The Enforcement Directorate and Income-Tax authorities too will be approached to investigate assets and other financial activities the gangster was involved in,” said DCP Ranjan Sharma. He further said one of the gang members Prakash Chintaman Mankar was arrested today from Futala area. Another member Gautam Kisan Bhatkar is still absconding. He soon will be netted, said the DCP.
The other nine members of the gang who have been arrested include Sachin Jayant Adulkar (37) of Mahal, Yuvraj Thuniya Mathankar (33) of Vidyanagar, Koradi, Sanjay Fatode, Akash Kishore Borkar (31) of Kamgar Colony, Subhash Nagar, Vinod Bhima Masram (32) of Shakti Sanju Manpiya (33) of Beltarodi, Prakash Mankar of Temple Bazaar, Soni Galli, Vijay Marotrao Borkar (52) of Telephone Nagar, and Lokesh Dilip Kuhitkar (37) of Vidyanagar, Koradi.
