Pune: The city police nabbed Swapnil Kulkarni (27), a criminal of the Chhota Rajan gang, from Sahakarnagar area on Thursday evening.
Kulkarni, a history-sheeter, has been associated with the Chhota Rajan gang since 2010.
Police sources said Kulkarni is wanted in several cases of murder, attempt to murder and dacoity.
According to the Sahakarnagar police, a carbine, three country-made revolvers and 21 cartridges of different bores were seized from him. The cartridges were purportedly from the ammunition factory in the city’s Khadki area.
The police are attempting to ascertain how they came in Kulkarni’s possession.
According to the police, Kulkarni is believed to be plotting a murder with these arms, which he allegedly obtained from a dealer in Nashik district.
In 2012, he was involved in a firing near the Shivajinagar Sessions Court, while in 2015, he was briefly arrested. The Rajan gang have a history of crimes in the city.
Indoesian police intercepted Rajendra Sadashiv Nikalje alias Chotta Rajan on October 25, 2015, based on a tip off by the Australian authorities from Canberra, after he landed at Denpasar airport in Bali. His arrest was on the basis of an Interpol red-corner notice issued against him in 1995 for committing criminal acts such as murder, running an organised crime syndicate, conspiracy etc.
Rajan is currently awaiting trial in CBI custody. He was wanted in the shooting of Shiv Sena leader Ajay Bhosale during an Assembly election campaign in Pune’s Koregaon Park area in October 2009. While Bhosale was unhurt, his driver was injured in the shooting.
Rajan is also a suspect in the 2003 murder of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) corporator Satish Misal.
The gangster had also allegedly demanded extortion money from a hotelier in the city’s posh Salisbury Park in 1996.
