With the arrest of three more persons today in connection with the attack on office-bearer of Shiv Sena's film wing 'Chitrapat Sena' at the Film City here last month, Mumbai police today claimed to have solved the case.
According to the police, the motive of the accused was to take revenge on Raju Shinde, Secretary of Chitrapat Sena and a private contractor.
On May 22, two motor-cycle riding men shot Shinde, injuring him critically. The incident took place close to a location where the Bollywood megastar Amitabh Bachchan was shooting for a film.
"We had a tip-off that the shooters were hiding in a brick kiln in (suburban) Goregaon and we nabbed them this morning," said Additional Commissioner of Police Fattesingh Patil.
He identified them as Sandip Khairnar (31), who fired the shots, Satish More (22), who drove the motorcycle, and Jitu Dheevar (32), an accomplice. Another suspect, Suresh Gaikwad, was absconding, Patil said, adding that but for his arrest, the case was solved.
Police also recovered the pistol used by Khairnar with two magazines and five live bullets.
Of the three arrested men, only Satish More had a past criminal record, said Patil.
Asked how could they succeeded in dodging the police, Assistance Commissioner of Police Rajan Ghule said, "For the first few days they were out of the city. When we received a tip-off about their return, we picked up them."
On May 24, police had arrested Sumit Talekar (22), Jugal Dodiya (26) and Yogesh Kokane (31) in the case.
Shinde, the victim, is now recovering in hospital.
According to Patil, Kokane and his friends Suresh Gaikwad, Sandeep Khairnar and one Rakesh Kamble had approached Shinde for a contract in the Film City in April, but they ended up having argument with Shinde, who followed them with his henchmen and beat them up.
To take revenge, they decided to kill him.
Police found clues to identity of culprits from the motorcycle left behind by the assailants, Patil said.
