Last Sunday, when the 17-year-old son of one of Pune’s prominent builders was produced before the Juvenile Justice Board (JJB) after he was caught for driving under the influence of alcohol and running over two people, his grandfather stood surety for his bail. He also assured JJB that the minor would mend his ways.
It has now emerged that the grandfather who started the family’s construction business allegedly has underworld connections and was booked by Pune police for hiring a mercenary from Chhota Rajan’s gang to bump off a Shiv Sena corporator, Ajay Bhosale.
According to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which has charge-sheeted the boy’s grandfather, he allegedly contracted Chhota Rajan in 2009 to execute Bhosale’s murder. The grandfather — who cannot be named as it would reveal the identity of the minor accused — first gave the contract to the gangster to mediate with his brother with whom he was having a dispute over division of multiple properties, the agency said. Rajan, in turn, contacted Bhosale who was close to the brother to lean on him and get the issue resolved in his client’s favour. Bhosale, who was in the midst of contesting the 2009 assembly elections from Wadgaon-Sheri on a Sena ticket, did not intervene. Rajan’s client also suspected Bhosale to be inclined in his brother’s favour so he then asked the gangster to eliminate Bhosale, according to CBI. A hitman fired at Bhosale’s car as he drove through Koregaon Park but the bullet hit his driver instead, injuring him. Bhosale escaped unharmed.
“Sometime in 2009, I was contacted by Chhota Rajan to intervene in the property disputes between two brothers (the teen’s grandfather and his sibling). Since I refused, the builder gave a contract to Rajan and accordingly the attack on me was orchestrated on October 11, 2009,” Bhosale told HT on Wednesday. An FIR was registered with the Bund Garden police station in which the builder’s name was not mentioned. Subsequently, the investigation was taken over by CBI which unravelled the plot to kill Bhosale and reached the builder who is known in Pune for his upscale residential projects in the city’s eastern parts.
When CBI filed its charge sheet, the builder was number 6 among the accused along with Chhota Rajan.
According to the charge sheet, the builder was in touch with Rajan through his henchman Vijay Tambat. In its 2020 submission to the CBI court in Mumbai, the agency said, “Chhota Rajan, on direction from the builder, ordered Mohammed Saqib Shahnawaz Alam Khan (one of the assailants) to shoot him (Bhosale) so that the estranged family member will hand over the desired share to his brother out of the fear lest he be targeted next.”
According to Bhosale while most accused in the case were arrested, the builder managed to secure anticipatory bail and rather like his grandson did not spend a single day behind bars. However, he remains an accused in the case for his underworld connection and for the contract that he gave Chhota Rajan.
On Wednesday, when specifically asked about the builder’s underworld connections, Maharashtra home minister Devendra Fadnavis told the media that the cops would examine all the aspects of the family’s conduct and that “The police will act on it accordingly.”
