Navi Mumbai: Three months after the arrest of dreaded gangster Vicky Deshmukh, the police have found that eight unsolved crimes were committed by him and his gang, including the murder of a 56-year-old businessman from Uran who had been missing since January. The other seven cases include murder and extortion.
Deshmukh was nabbed from Goa in July after a hunt of three years during which he was absconding after kidnapping and brutally killing one of his own gang members, Sachin Garje. The Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) has been evoked against him.
Ashok Gharat, the businessman from Shelgar village in Uran, was kidnapped by Deshmukh and his accomplices from a Bolero car in January. The gang took him to Tansa area of Thane, forcibly recorded a message in his voice and then shot him in the head. They then took the body to the forest of Ambistegaon in Wada and burnt it with diesel. The next day, Deshmukh sent Gharat’s voice recording to his brother and demanded a ransom of ₹25 lakh, which he received at Panvel.
Deputy commissioner of police (crime branch) Suresh Mengade said that Vicky’s younger brother Jitendra Deshmukh and his accomplices had similarly kidnapped a man in the business of internet supply in Navi Mumbai a few months ago. “They threatened to kill him if he did not give them a 10 percent stake in the business and also extorted ₹20 lakh from him. The gang had also kidnapped a quarry businessman from the Ulwe area and extorted ₹80 lakh,” said Mengade.
The gang’s sexual offences have also come to light like the sexual assault of a waitress in a Nerul bar by Deshmukh and his brother, said the police. The gangster, while he was in hiding at Manchar, also repeatedly abused a minor girl who he had hired as his house help. He has thus been booked under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO).
“After we found Vicky’s involvement in various cases, we arrested 14 more people from his gang. Four pistols and a cash amount of ₹5 lakh have been seized from them,” Navi Mumbai police commissioner Bipin Kumar Singh said.
Senior police inspector, unit II, Crime Branch, Giridhar Gore said that the fear of someone as brutal as Deshmukh had kept many people from registering complaints. “We have now appealed to them to come forward if Deshmukh and his gang have ever extorted money from them,” he said.