The Anti Extortion Cell (AEC) of the Mumbai Police Crime Branch foiled a murder plot by arresting an aide of fugitive gangster Dawood Ibrahim on Friday.
The police said that the accused, Ramdas Rahane, was tasked with killing a hotelier based in Malad.
11 criminal cases
Mr. Rahane, a sharpshooter with the D-gang, was first arrested in 1997 for attempting to murder film producer Rajiv Rai. There are 11 criminal cases registered against him in Mumbai, Nashik and Gujarat. A native of Mumbai, Mr. Rahane was inducted into the gang after his younger brother, Dashrath Rahane, an aide of the D-gang, was murdered in the early 1990s.
Demanded ₹50 lakh
Dilip Sawant, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Detection), said, “The hotelier had registered a complaint against the D-gang’s constant threats to kill him if he did not pay ₹50 lakh as extortion money. The AEC officers arrested Rahane based on a tip-off. He was produced in court on Saturday and remanded in police custody till June 30. We have recovered a firearm and a hit list from his possession.”
Mr. Sawant said the complainant had opened a hotel in Dubai in 2001 with investments from some of his friends. The D-gang later killed one of the friends and demanded the money he had invested in the complainant’s hotel.
Mr. Sawant said, “The complainant paid whatever he could back then. However, over the past few months, the D-gang began issuing death threats to him again. When he refused to give in to the gang’s demands, Mr. Rahane was tasked with extorting the money from him.”
The Crime Branch officers have claimed to have found sufficient evidence of Mr. Rahane being in constant touch with top members of the D-gang. The officers will quiz the accused on the details of the murder plot, the hit list, and activities of the D-gang in India and abroad.
Sources said Mr. Rahane is believed to be close to Dawood’s brother Anees, and is in direct contact with him.
Mr. Rahane is also accused of attempting to murder builder Vikyamal Shroff in Nashik in 2003, builder Omprakash Kukreja in 2005 and builder Manish Dholakia in 2011.
