Belagavi: Belagavi police secured a major breakthrough in their investigation into the network of underworld gangster Rashid Malabari, as two notorious sharpshooters working for underworld gangsters Chota Shakeel were arrested on Wednesday, one in Mumbai and another in Bengaluru.
The two also were close associates of Rashid Malabari and helped him in carrying out recent kidnaps and murders.
After their arrest during surprise raids on their houses in Mumbai and Bengaluru, the police rushed them to Belagavi and produced them at a local court on Wednesday. The arrested have been identified as Bilal Khan from Mumbai and Sayyad Ali from Bengaluru.
Bilal has been a notorious criminal who worked as sharpshooter for both Chota Shakeel and Malabari for the last some years. According to the sources, he was one of the ‘most-wanted’ sharpshooters by the Mumbai police. Despite several raids and attempts, the Mumbai police were not been able to catch him.
Although the Belagavi police had obtained definite clues about their involvement in three cases of kidnap and murder carried out by Malabari's gang two years ago, they are yet to confirm about it.
The Malabari gang had kidnapped and murdered Rohan Redekar, a businessman from Belagavi, Ashish Ranjan, a computer hacker from Goa and Ayaz Ahmed, a businessman from Mumbai.
The three were kidnapped from their respective places by Malabari gang two years ago for ransom and were later killed. According to sources, their bodies were thrown at different places which were later recovered by Karwar and Belagavi police.
The investigating police have found that the Malabari gang had been able to carry out several major crimes in Belagavi due to its link with former Belagavi Zilla Panchayat president Nazir Nadaf. However, it is still unclear whether Nadaf also was associated with the two arrested on Wednesday.
Recently, the Belagavi police had arrested four gang members of Malabari, identified as Muzafar Shaikh, Imtiyaz Dalayat, Jatin Arjun Kadam and Sarfaraz, all residents of Belagavi.
It may be noted that Malabari gang had killed Ashish Ranjan and threw his body near Ankola and later killed Ayaz Ahmed and disposed his body near Karwari. A noted builder Aslam from Mumbai also kidnapped by the same gang for ransom two years ago, besides contractor Sharif Yargatti of Belagavi a few weeks ago.
