Firing at Sahar village: Cops arrest three men from Nashik

MUMBAI: Three men were recently arrested from Nashik in connection with a firing incident on a repairs contractor at Sahar Village. Two of the accused had tried to extort money from the complainant, Mukhtar Shaikh, two years ago and had been thrashed by him, a probe has revealed. They swore revenge and plotted the attack.
On January 16, they did a recce for two hours before firing at Mukhtar.But Mukhtar, who was on a bike, escaped unhurt. The police had picked up one person the same day and the total arrests have now gone up to four.
In 2016, one Javed Shaikh had approached Mukhtar and threatened to complain against the repair work he was carrying out unless he paid him some money. Both, Javed and Mukhtar, have a criminal record. Mukhtar had reportedly thrashed Javed (36) and his friend, Darshan Shetty (19). Mukhtar spent nine months behind bars. Meanwhile, Javed continued to commit crimes and was externed from Mumbai limits for one year in 2017.
“Javed moved to Vapi in Gujarat and rented a place. He did not return to Mumbai even after his externment period ended,” said senior inspector Lata Shirsat. For the past two months, Javed and Shetty stayed at Vapi and plotted to bump Mukhtar off. They procured two countrymade revolvers. They also got two more associates—Mahesh Singh (20) and Vikas Sharma (27). It was decided that Javed would stay in Vapi while the other three went to Saharand carried out the plan.
“Sharma arranged for a bike as a getaway vehicle. On January 16, the men kept a watch for Mukhtar while being in touch with Javed on phone. They waited as Mukhtar came by car. Later, when he got onto a bike, Shetty fired a shot. While the bullet missed Mukhtar, a splinter hurt a woman passerby on the leg,” said inspector Raghunath Kadam. The woman is out of danger.
While Singh was caught the same day, Shetty and Sharma moved to Vapi. But they gathered that the cops were on their trail. From Vapi, Shetty, Sharma and Javed moved to Nashik. The cops were tracking their cellphone locations and nabbed them in Nashik on January 17. They were brought to Mumbai where a court sent them to police custody till January 24. Two countrymade revolvers have been seized. TNN