Mumbai: ATS Arrests Arthur Road Central Prison’s Guard For Passing Messages Of Gangster Harish Mandvikar To His Aides
Mumbai, December 27, 2020: Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) has been investigating a case wherein a prime witness in a 2015 ATS case was being threatened to give false evidence in the Court in favor of accused Sajid Electricwala, the main accused in the 2015 case.
In the ongoing trial proceedings of the 2015 case before the Special NDPS Court in Mumbai, while deposition of a prime witness was in progress, he was threatened by the henchmen of gangster Harish Mandvikar at the behest of accused Sajid Electricwala. In this connection, the Charkop Unit of ATS registered a case under sections 195(A), 506, 120(B), 34 of IPC on 24.11.2020 and arrested all four accused persons, viz. Sajid Electricwala (the main accused in the 2015 case), gangster Harish Mandvikar and his two associates Sachin Kolekar alias Pintu and Sujit Padwalkar.
Accused Mandvikar and Electricwala are in ATS custody till 28.12.2020, whereas the other two accused have been remanded to Judicial Custody.
According to ATS, in June 2015, ATS had recovered 155 kg of Mephedrone (MD) by raiding an illegal drug manufacturing Unit in Lokhandwala Complex, Andheri which was owned by accused Sajid Electricwala. He was arrested red-hand with six other accused. Electricwala has been lodged inside Arthur Road Central Prison since 2015. In March 2020, gangster Harish Mandvikar was sent to the Arthur Road Central Prison in an MCOC case and he was lodged in a high-security cell (Anda Cell) adjacent to that of Electricwala.
While in the prison, Electricwala befriended Mandvikar and hatched a conspiracy with him to threaten a prime witness in the case whose court deposition was in progress. Pursuant to the conspiracy, Gangster Harish Mandivikar sent a hand-written chit from inside the prison to his henchman Sachin Kolekar alias Pintu ordering him to threaten the witness. Accordingly, accused Sachin Kolekar issued threats to the witness through his associate Sujit Padwalkar. In the course of the investigation of the case, it is revealed that a jail policeman, who was deployed at the high-security cell (Anda Cell) at Arthur Road Central Prison, personally passed on the handwritten chit carrying orders of accused Harish Mandvikar from inside the jail to his aide. The said jail policeman was frequently passing on Mandvikar’s hand-written chits to his aide for the past few months before the crime.
On 25.12.2020, the Charkop Unit of ATS has arrested the involved jail policeman on the basis of strong evidence against him. He has been remanded into ATS custody till 28.12.2020. The Charkop Unit of ATS is probing the further role of the arrested jail policeman in the crime.
The ATS has successfully unearthed the conspiracy and arrested all culprits involved in the crime thus preventing the court proceedings in an important case from being derailed.