One of the city’s most dreaded criminals, Prakash Narayan Pandey alias Bunty Pandey, has finally been nabbed by the Mumbai Crime Branch. He was detained in Hanoi in Vietnam and was extradited to India on Wednesday night. Pandey has 34 criminal cases of serious nature registered against him.
Born on December 25, 1970, Pandey is a native of Nainital in Uttarakhand. His father Keshavdutt Pandey was a subedar in the Indian Army.
According to the police, Pandey got into smuggling of liquor and joined underworld don Chhota Rajan’s gang.
Soon, he became Rajan’s close confidante, and in 1995, led a team of attackers, who were instrumental in the murder of Takiuddin Wahid, managing director of Eastwest Airlines, at Khar.
He fell out of favour with Rajan after 2002 and formed his own gang.
Pandey has 34 cases of murder, extortion, kidnapping and attempt to murder against him, 13 of them in Mumbai and the rest in Uttarakhand. He has been arrested in connection to an extortion case in 2009. He has been remanded in police custody till November 12.
Since 2002, Pandey has been shuttling between Cambodia, Thailand, Bangladesh, Singapore, Nepal and Vietnam.
His passport was issued in the name of Vijay Subhash Sharma in 1999 in Cambodia by the Indian embassy.
“Pandey was doing labour contracting work in Vietnam, where his wife and daughter stay,” said joint commissioner of police, crime, Himanshu Roy.
He added that the police have seized a mobile phone and memory card from Pandey.
“His arrest sends an important message to other criminals like Ravi Pujari and Hemant Pujari, who are hiding abroad,” Roy said.
The Crime Branch has been keeping track of Pandey’s movements the past few months.
“We had given details of his location and assumed name to the Interpol,” said additional police commissioner Deven Bharti.
